THE TEAGHER’S HELPER, 4 u o b o%«"aV. 


Vol. V. FEBRUARY, 1899. No. 7. 



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The Teachers’ Helper is published in Chicago monthly. Entered at Chicago post-office 

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VOLUME 4. VOLUME 3. VOLUME 2. VOLUME 1 


a? TEACHER’S HELPER 


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No. 


THE NUMBERS AS ISSUED ARE: 


I. 

Aug., 

1894. 

II. 

Sept., 

44 

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Cook’s Nature Myths and Stories. 

Ensign’s U. S. History Outlines. 

Burton’s Outlines of English Grammar. 

Nelson’s Outlines of Elementary Science. 

Nameless Stories, Supplementary Reading. 

Study of Hiawatha, Teacher’s Edition. 

Norse Gods and Heroes. 

Castle’s Entertainments No. 1. 

Introductory Guide to Nature Study. 

Walks and Talks, by William Hawley Smith. 

Helper in School Entertainments. 

Fables and Fact Stories. 

Cat Tails and Other Tales. 

Three Little Lovers of Nature. 

Castle's Entertainments No. 2. 

Legends of the Red Man’s Forest. 

Victor in Buzzland, Natural History. 

Taylor’s Literary Work in the Schoolroom. 

Stories from American History, Ellis. 

Pritchard’s Choice Dialogues. 

Mature and History Stories. 

Ways, Methods and Devices of 1.000 Prominent Teachers. 
Epochs in American History, Ellis. 

Scientific Temperance Manual. 

Leading American Industries.—Minerals. 

Lewis’ History Outlines. 

Our Gold Mine.—Sequel to Black Beauty. 

Strike at Shanes. 

History of My Friends, or Home Life with Animals. 

Lives of the Presidents.—Ellis. 

Select Stories.—Bass. 

Our Friends, the Birds. 

The Pied Piper and Other Stories enlarged. 

Talks about Common Things.—McLeod. 

Wallbank's Outlines and Exercises in English Grammar 

Eberhart’s Elements of Entomology. 

Graded Instructions in Drawing. 

Fables and Tales.—Rocheleau. 

Helps in Teaching Little Ones. 

Christmas Gems.—Recitations for Christmas. 

Leading American Industries.—Products of the Soil. 
Early History Stories. 

Blocks With Which W r e Build. Supplementary Reading. 
Pritchard’s Choice Dialogues. 

Aunt Martha’s Corner Cupboard 
Black Beauty. 

A Term's Work on Longfellow. 

VOLUME 5. 

Outlines and Topics of English History. 

Cortez, Montezuma and Mexico. By Bess Mitchell. 
Outlines for Advanced Grades in U. S. History. 

The Story of Lafayette, 

The Evangeline Book. 

Natural Method in Arithmetic. 

Manual of Nature Study. 


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A. FLANAGAN, Publisher, 

267 Wabash Ave., Chicago. 














MANUAL 


Nature Study 

BY GRADERS 

TO ACCOMPANY THE COURSE OF STUDY FOR THE 
CITY AND TOWN SCHOOLS OF INDIANA 


W. 


/ 


BY 


H. HERSHMAN, A. B. 



New Albany, Ind. 


CHICAGO: 

A. Fuanagan, Publisher. 




22467 


Copyrighted 1898 

BY 

A.. FLANAGAN. 


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SP 


DEG 271898 


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PREFACE. 


This book was written to assist teachers in developing 
more fully than the limited space of a suggestive course of 
study would allow, the nature work laid out in the course of 
study for city and town schools of Indiana. Two objects in 
the nature study are kept constantly in mind; first, to arouse 
and cultivate the habit of observation, and second, to im¬ 
press the facts thus acquired upon the mind. Mr. Hershman 
recognizes the truth that children have a deep, strong, in¬ 
stinctive love for all things that live and all things that 
support life. 

From a close, personal acquaintance with the author 
for more than twenty years, I know that this book is the 
outgrowth of a rich, varied and thoughtful experience with 
child nature and the nature through which the child lives. 
It may be said that while this book is written from the sci¬ 
entific side, it is pedagogically correct, and more, it has a 
freshness of spirit that is in itself one of the most potent 
factors in education. 

“He gave us eyes to see these, 

And lips that'we might tell 
How great is God Almighty, 

Who hath made all things well.” 

D. M. Getting. 

Indianapolis, Ind., October, 1898. 


CONTENTS. 


First Year Work.— Plant Life, Animal Life, Physi¬ 
ology, Geography, Weather Study. 7 

Second Year Work.— Animal Life, Physiology, Geog¬ 
raphy, Weather Study, Gems to be Learned. 12 

Third Year Work.— Plant Life. Reviews, Animal 

Life, Physiology, Lessons. 32 

Fourth Year Work. —Review Uses of Lessons. Roots, 

Animal Life, Physiology. 81 

Fifth Year Work.— Plant Life, Nature Study. 106 

Sixth Year Work. —Plant Life. 120 

Seventh Year Work.— Plant Life. Physiology- 141 

Eighth Grade Work.— Physiology. 158 










A PLEA FOR THE STUDY OF NATURE. 


The purpose in all education is to train the child into a 
habit of correct thinking; to make him strong to battle with 
the evils of the world; to lead him to be a good citizen; to 
perfect him in love for all God’s creatures; in short, to enable 
him to live completely. 

Whatever may be my thoughts in regard to the rank of 
nature study when compared with the educational values of 
other studies, or whatever may be said in reference to its 
relation or correlation with them, it cannot be denied that 
it has great educational value as a factor in the development 
of human character. This fact is thought to be a sufficient 
cause for the introduction of such study into the grades. 

How nature study serves its purpose in the development of 
character. 

It has been said that every child is born into this world 
with a two-fold nature, an inner spirit and an outer manifes¬ 
tation. His value throughout life depends upon his relation 
to the outer world of which he is the center. To him every¬ 
thing appears to be within easy reach. Kven the moon and 
the stars are his playthings; all things are for his use, but 
it requires effort to bring them under his control. The 
world is full of life and beauty, ready to contribute to his 
growth and happiness. The inner spiritual nature of the 
child is reaching upward to a higher ideal. The ideal just 
out of reach moves onward and persuades the spirit to follow 
in pursuit. vii 



viii MANUAIy OF NATURK STUDY. 

To carry intelligence into the vegetable kingdom, the 
full-grown, well-developed stalk of corn in full ear is the 
ideal in the life of this plant throughout all stages of its 
existence. In the realization of this ideal the vital force of 
this plant uses all its surroundings; soil and moisture be¬ 
neath, air and carbon dioxide above, and warmth and sun¬ 
light all around it. When these outer elements are brought 
into contact with the inner life of the plant, they are trans¬ 
formed into a thing of beauty and pushed outward as an 
embodiment and manifestation of the beautiful life within. 
Throughout the period of growth in the attainment of its 
ideal, the corn plant is harmonizing the surrounding ele¬ 
ments with its own beautiful life. 

Or, to carry intelligence into the animal kingdom, the 
ideal towards which the spirit strives is the full-grown, well- 
developed animal, and we have only to observe its growth 
and habits in life to know its place in nature. Here again 
the crude elements of the outer world are changed into a 
body of strength, activity and beauty appropriate to the 
character of the internal spirit. The earth itself acts in 
obedience to the same laws. It balances the other planets 
in space and assists in the equilibrium of the whole universe. 
It receives the elements from the sun and works them over 
into stormy seas and pacific lakes, rugged mountains and 
peaceful valleys, majestic forests and grassy prairies, all 
expressive of that inner life that enables it to fit into the 
environment—the universe. 

As with the examples just given, so with the child. He, 
too, reaches upward toward an ideal. He is in the world to 
learn his place in nature that he may adapt himself to his 
surroundings. He touches nature. He is nature himself 
and all his acts are nature. The first few years of his life 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


IX 


are spent in exploring nature. He finds systems and 
plans in nature and his thoughts go out in search of the 
Great Systematizer and Designer. This habit of searching 
and experimenting grows on him until he finds God in 
nature, and learns to read His thoughts as expressed in the 
flowers of the field, the trees of the forest and in all other 
living realities. The more he reads divine thoughts as ex¬ 
pressed in the creation, the more self becomes crucified and 
the nearer he comes to “Him whose thought nature is.” 
Shall we not, then, give the child the freest opportunity to 
push upward in the direction of the highest ideal of human 
character? 

The boy feels that there is life force in plant life and 
intelligence in animal life just the same as in human life, 
and that the same hand is back of it all; and that the same 
spirit that developed infinite divisibility and individuality 
has also brought everything into one grand unity as a mani¬ 
festation of the universal spirit. When the child is led to 
see that life grows out of contrast, and that beauty is found 
in unified variety, that all nature is formed upon one com¬ 
mon plan, and that the same spirit pervades all, he and 
nature will be blended into one, in which unity they will 
ever walk, each contributing to the support of the other. 
Nature flows into the child’s life, elevates his esthetic and 
ethical nature, while he in turn, thus strengthened, contrib. 
utes to the life of nature and lifts it into grander beauty. 
Can such experience fail to prepare the child for complete 
living? 

Let us see what the love of nature did for the Greeks 
and Romans. They loved and recognized her as their 
mother. In fact, they saw in her the workings of the 
divine spilit. Their ideas of deity took form, the varieties 


X 


MANUAL OF NATURF STUDY. 


of which were as numerous as the ideas to be represented. 
Hence wood and stream were early peopled with divine 
images born out of this love of nature. “To those gods,” 
it is said by one writer, “we owe our grandest architectural 
forms and most beautiful statuary. For at first temples 
were hollowed out of the trunks of trees, and wooden gods 
were placed therein for safety.” As the love of nature 
lifted man’s soul, “temples of wood took the place of trees, 
and these in turn gave place to temples of stone, beautifully 
adorned with gold and silver, and the wooden gods gave 
place to statuary of marble and ivory, so that to-day we can 
carve nothing to equal the work of these old Greek sculp¬ 
tors.” 

The Greek’s love of nature developed the Grecian spirit, 
and as it grew it poured itself out into the general spirit of 
nature, and the spirit of nature, thus reinforced, returned a 
flood of light upon the spirit of the Greek. Each stage of 
spiritual progress demands a finer piece of statuary to repre¬ 
sent deity and a better temple for his dwelling-place. This 
idea of worship—for that is what it was—this reaching out 
after satisfaction in nature, increases the magnitude, beauty 
and grandeur of the statuary and decreases the number of 
deities. When each element of the universe was considered 
separate and apart from all others, as distinct organisms in 
nature, deities multiplied in great abundance; but when the 
elements were found organized into one complex whole, a 
universal spirit was plainly visible through these outward 
manifestations. This universal spirit, which is God in 
nature, demanded a temple infinitely more beautiful than 
the finest Grecian architecture—a temple not made of mate¬ 
rial things. The ideal temple moved on and on beyond the 
bounds of matter; indeed it passed into the spiritual realm. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. xi 

The ideal deity also passed beyond marble or ivory, beyond 
the reach of the sculptor’s chisel, and the Athenian's un¬ 
known God made His eternal home in the temple of the 
HUMAN HEART. 

Did we say awhile ago that we owe our progress in 
sculpturing and statuary to the ancient gods of Greece? 
Nay, not so. We owe it all to love of nature and the idea 
of worship found in nature. 

We now see clearly that this temple of God in the human 
heart should be in absolute harmony with all the grandest 
products of nature. Within the innermost recesses of this 
temple the peace of nature mingles with that higher peace, 
and begets joy and love as heavenly blessings to the human 
soul. Now tell me if this does not make character, true, 
beautiful and good ! 

We go through this world with eyes, but cannot see; 
ears, but do not hear, for these organs have not been fully 
opened to the soul. Men of means go yearly to such places of 
resort as Niagara Falls, Vesuvius and the National Park, and 
trample under foot daily and hourly many microscopic won¬ 
ders far more appealing to the soul. Shall we continue so 
to do; or shall we open up these avenues to the soul, that a 
flood of light from the outer world may be thrown upon 
our inner world ? 

L,et us, dear Teachers, endeavor to lead our children so 
that the primroses and flowers of this earth may pass into 
the soul, and take root, grow, bloom and throw off fra¬ 
grance out of the very lives of our children. Such leading 
will give us a community that will grow in character and 
happiness, and each individual member thereof will be fully 
enthroned in all his rights. 


W. H. H. 



MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY 

To Accompany Course of Study for the City and Town 
Schooes of Indiana. 


FIRST YEAR. 


A: —Plant Life. 

1. Autumn Fruits: — Peach, Pear, Apple, 
Grape, etc., as types. 

Compare and contrast as to size, shape, color, 
external coverings, hardness, internal structure, 
taste, smell. 

Arrangement of seeds, arrangement on stalk, 
how gathered and marketed, comparison of values, 
etc. 

2. Autumn Leaves. — Make collections, study 
forms, colors, etc. 

As types, take leaves of fruits named above and 
study in connection with the study of those fruits. 
Make drawings in each case. 

3. Autumn Flowers . — Goldenrod, Aster and 
Sunflower. 

Encourage the finding of all kinds of Golden- 
rod in this locality. Make drawings of plant as a 
whole. Make drawings of leaf, flowers, etc. 

( 7 ) 




8 MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. . 

4. Autumn Seeds .—Make collections. 

Study dissemination by winds, animals and cur¬ 
rents of water. 

As an example of wind dissemination take golden- 
rod, milk weed pod, thistle, iron weed. 

Dissemination by animals may be illustrated by 
the cockle bur, sand bur, Spanish needle, or other 
bur-like seeds. 

By water, nuts of almost all kinds, linden seed, 
etc., may serve as types. See if nuts and acorns 
will float. 

5. Preparation for Winter , as shown in buds 
and leaves; make collections of buds:—hickory, 
buckeye, maple, or fruit trees. Lilac furnishes an 
example of getting ready for winter. Gather also 
some buds from house plants, so that children may 
see that naked buds do not prepare for winter. 

6. Study an Evergreen as a type form. Com¬ 
pare and contrast with the other trees in regard to 
shape, size, and color of leaves. 

7. Preparations for Spring . 

a. Planting of seeds in school room,—beans, 
peas, wheat, oats and corn inearth, sand and water. 

b. Observation of germination and growth. 
These seeds may be planted in cigar boxes, or com¬ 
mon earthen flower pots, and watched as far as 
possible throughout their life history. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


9 


8. Determination of parts of Plants —root, stem, 
leaf, bud, flower. 

9. Learn to know Commoii Flowers . 

B. — Animal Life. 

1. Insects .— Transformation of, collection of 
cocoons. 

Through September, the grasshopper, katy-did, 
dragon fly, potato beetle, and larvae of butterfly 
or moth may be observed as to their habitat, mode 
of eating, life history, etc. 

2. Lessons on Cat , Dog, Horse , Cow, Squirrel, 
Robin , Blackbird, Wood-pecker and Chicken . Ob¬ 
serve, compare and describe their covering, parts, 
food, care of young. Illustrate their habits by 
stories and encourage the children to tell stories 
about what they have seen. 

C. — Physiology. 

Learn to name and locate the parts of the body 
—Head, neck, trunk, arms (right and left), hands, 
feet. Study movements, use and care of each part; 
show what can be done by each part; how adapted 
to use; kindness, how shown by hands, feet, lips; 
simple lessons on eating, drinking, breathing, 
sleeping, with special reference to hygiene and 
right habits; temperance in eating and drinking. 


10 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


D. —Geography. 

1. General Position :—Direction and distance; 
observation and placing of objects; description by 
use of prepositions and adjectives. 

2. Particular Position: —Direction; outdoor ob¬ 
servation of the cardinal and semi-cardinal direc¬ 
tions. 

3. Forms of Water: —Cloud, fog, mist, rain, 
dew, frost, snow, ice; observation of forms as they 
occur and where they occur, to recognize each and 
to find the more obvious qualities and uses of each. 

4. Winds .—Temperature, to recognize by feel¬ 
ing the degrees hot, warm, cold; velocity, to recog¬ 
nize and distinguish by their effects the calm, 
breeze and gale. 

E .— Weather Study. 

Suggestive questions:—Dew, frost, fog, cloudy, 
clear or partly cloud}L Direction of wind. Kind 
of night last night. Kind of day. 

In connection with this Weather Study, tell the 
story of Mercury, of Apollo’s Cows, Zephyr and His 
Brothers, The Bag of Winds, Neptune, How 
^Jneas was saved, and Aurora and Her Tears. 

In connection with the Plant Study, tell the 
Story of Clytie, of The Thistle, of Apollo and 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


11 


Hyacinthus, The Star and the Lily, and The Law 
of the Wood. 

In connection with the Study of Animal Life, 
tell the Story of Aurora and Tithonus. 

Under preparation for winter, tell the Story of 
the Ant and the Grasshopper, and Broken Wing. 

In the Spring-time, tell A Bird Story, The Little 
Worm that was Glad to be Alive, and Robin Red 
Breast. 

Gems. —1. “Rain Shower,” to be given at time 
of gentle rain. 2. “Little Purple Aster,” especially 
appropriate while studying the Aster. 3. “The 
Sunbeams,” particularly appropriate on the return 
of a beautiful day after a season of storms. 
4. “Leaves at Play,” appropriate for a windy day 
in November. 5. “Sleep, Baby, Sleep,” to be 
recited after a talk about the Moon and Stars. 
6. “The Hemlock Tree,” to be recited in winter 
while studying the evergreen. 7. “Catch,” from 
Ben Johnson, a Spring gem. 

All these Gems and Stories may be found in 
Mrs. Wilson’s Nature Reader, published by 
McMillan & Co. Also, see Nature Myths and 
Stories, by Flora J. Cooke, published by Flanagan. 


12 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


SECOND YEAR. 

A .— Plant Life. 

1. Autumn Fruits .—Apple, plum, grape, etc. 
a . Collection of. b. Study typical forms, c. Draw¬ 
ings. d. Descriptions, both oral and written. It 
will require several lessons for the rounding up of 
the work on fruits. 

Review the work of the first year, giving par¬ 
ticular attention to comparison in size, color, shape, 
consistency, external covering, whether hairy or 
smooth, number of seeds in each, market value 
of each, etc. Manner of hanging on the tree or vine. 

Also discuss to some extent function of the fruit, 
and the dangers through which fruit must pass in 
order to reach maturity, the adaptability of cover¬ 
ing to guard against dangers. These mere hints 
will prepare the way for a more systematic discus¬ 
sion of the colorations, enemies and protectors, 
higher up in the grades of school work. 

Drawings. —Peach as a whole, apple as a whole, 
plum as a whole, a single grape, a cluster of grapes; 
a half peach cut to show the seed, a half apple cut 
to show the seeds, a half plum cut to show the seed; 
a peach with a few leaves on twig, an apple with a 
few leaves on twig, a plum with a few leaves on 
twig, a bunch of grapes with a few leaves on vine. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


13 


2. Autumn Leaves .— a . Collection of. b . Study 
typical forms. £. Drawings, d . Descriptions both 
oral and written. 

Before beginning the work on leaves, the teacher 
should read thoroughly the chapters on leaves in 
Gray’s Botany, or some other good text, and also 
study the leaves themselves. With Second Year 
pupils, the external form and appearance are all 
that can be taught to good advantage. Select sev¬ 
eral varieties, after teaching the parts of a single 
leaf, and compare them in regard to size, shape, 
color, surface, margin and veins. Such exercises 
will lead to the following conclusions: 

1. There are two kinds of leaves, simple and 
compound, a . Simple leaves have but one blade 
on a foot stalk, b. A compound leaf has two or 
more bladelets, each usually with a separate petiole, 
but all joined to one common petiole. 

2. The under surface of leaves is usually lighter 
in color than the upper surface. 

3. All leaves have veins which proceed from the 
petiole, but they are arranged in different ways in 
different leaves. 

4. The margins or edges of leaves are either 
smooth or cut and notched in various ways. 

5. Leaves vary in shape, size and color, so that 
the leaf of one kind of plant can always be distin¬ 
guished from that of another. 


14 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


For mounting and preserving leaves, the teacher 
is referred to Howe’s Systematic Science Teaching, 
page 122, D. Appleton & Company. 

Drawings. —1. An apple leaf with its petiole and 
venation. 2. A peach leaf with petiole and vena¬ 
tion. 3. A grape leaf with petiole and venation. 
4. Sycamore leaf. 5. Maple leaf. 6. Oak leaves of 
several kinds. 7. A group of buckeye leaves from 
one bud. 8. A walnut leaf. 9. “ A Heaven Tree” 

leaf, and, 10. Locust leaves. 

Note. —The teacher may make drawing upon 
the board to illustrate method of representation, but 
in no case should the pupils be permitted to draw 
from a copy. The drawing by the teacher should 
be immediately erased and the attention of the 
pupils be directed to the leaf itself. 

3. Autumn Flowers. —Gentian, golden rod, aster, 
Jamestown or“jimson weed,” sunflower, and thistle. 

a. Collection of. b. Study typical forms, c. 
Drawings, d. Descriptions both oral and written. 

After a comparative review of work suggested in 
the first year, the following facts should be estab¬ 
lished as far as possible in regard to each plant: * 

1. Where found, whether in cultivated fields 
and in heaps of rubbish and rich places as in the 
case of jimson weed, or along the country road 
side as in the case of the golden rod, in dry pas- 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


15 


tures as with the thistles, etc. 2. Its nativity. 3. 
How it came to this country. 4. Its relations; for 
instance, the jimson is a near relative of the 
tobacco plant. 5. Visitors, such as bees, ants, but¬ 
terflies, flies, etc., and why they go there. 

4. Autumn Seeds .— a . Collections of. • b. 
Study of typical forms. c. Drawings. d. De¬ 
scriptions both oral and written, but principally 
oral. 

Make collection of acorns, walnuts, hickor}^ nuts, 
hazel nuts, chestnuts, all with the pod or shuck, 
if possible, so as to lead to a simple discussion of 
protection. A cocoanut within the shuck is very 
interesting by way of comparison with other nuts. 

Select, also, beans, corn, oats, always calling at¬ 
tention to the covering which may be compared in 
each case with the covering of apples, peaches, etc., 
of the preceding month. 

Oral lessons on gathering nuts, corn, oats, beans 
and cocoanuts will be very valuable to cultivate 
power of conversation. Comparative values in 
market may be considered. 

5. Preparation of Plants for Winter .—As shown 
by changes in leaves, buds and bark. This topic 
may be discussed at the conclusion of several les¬ 
sons on hibernation of animals, which see. Collect 
a great many buds after the frost has taken off the 


16 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


leaves and notice the scaly covering in each case. 
Compare with naked buds in green house. Notice 
the sticky substance that holds these buds to¬ 
gether. Compare with naked buds. Bring up 
this question again in spring time when the buds 
begin to open. 

Compare the bark of plants that endure the 
winter, with that of green house plants. Why the 
difference ? Notice difference between bark of this 
year’s growth and that of last year’s growth. How 
does it differ at frosting time from the growing 
time? 

Notice that some plants, like the violet, spring 
beauty and potato, go into winter quarters under 
the ground just as some animals do. 

Observe that trees burst their bark when they 
get too large for it, thus making the outside very 
rough, as seen in the walnut or bur-oak. How 
about the locust or grasshopper, crayfish and cicada 
when they grow too large for their skins? The 
snake, frog, boy? 

6. Effects of Frost :—On leaves, buds, stems 
and flowers. The suggestions under (5) are ap¬ 
plicable here. 

Bring out the thought that some plants die 
down to the ground every year when frost comes, 
while others only drop their leaves. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


17 


7. Preparation for Spring. — a . Germination of 
seeds planted in school room. Keep record of fre¬ 
quent observations of growing plants, b . Germi¬ 
nation and growth of self-sown seeds, maple, acorns, 
etc. c . Flow of sap, growth of stems, leaves and 
flowers. 

8. Study spring flowers as to form and colors. 
Names of common flowers such as violet, spring 
beauty, hepatica, mustard, windflower, or anemone, 
butter-cup, etc. Compare and contrast the humble 
and modest violet of this spring with the haughty 
jimson of last fall. See Bryant’s poem on the 
violet. 

B. —Animal Life. 

1. Insects: —Ant, bee, beetle, grasshopper, etc. 
a. Collections, b . Study typical forms, c. Draw¬ 
ings and descriptions both oral and written, d. 
Habits, e. Transformation. 

2. Covering of animals for the seasons. 

3. Habits of hibernation. 

4. Prehension of food. 

a. Organs of. b. Method of different animals. 

5. Reappearance of birds. Notice the instincts 
shown in migration, nesting and care of young. 

6. Study of Tadpole and Frog. 

Suggestions on the course: 


18 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


Collect an ant, a bee, a wasp, a butterfly, a grass¬ 
hopper, and notice that they are all alike in that 
they are all cut into in two places, hence name in¬ 
sect, cut into . 

1. Let the pupils point out the head, chest, and 
abdomen in each case. 

2. Point out the apparatus that belong to the 
head, viz.: mouth, eyes and feelers. 

If you have a hand lens pass it around and let 
the children see that each insect is provided with 
compound eyes so that it can see in every direct¬ 
ion without turning the head. 

How different is the grasshopper’s eye from the 
eye of the little boy or cat. Besides the compound 
eyes, one on each side with many little faces, the 
insect also has three little, simple eyes. See if the 
children, by aid of the lens, can find them. Why 
do you suppose they have those three simple eyes? 

2. The chest has three pairs of legs below and 
two pairs of wings above. Let the children find 
these and count them and see that they all belong 
to the chest or thorax. To little children there 
may appear exceptions to this rule as every insect 
of the group diptera , of which the common house 
fly is an example, has but one pair of wings. In 
place of the second pair two knobbed threads, or 
“balancers” appear. But this should not be dis- 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


19 


cussed in this grade. Also some butterflies have 
abortive two front legs, thus leaving but two pairs 
of real legs. 

3. Point, out the organs of the abdomen if any 
are to be seen; for example, the sting of the bee, 
the boring machine called ovipositors in female 
grasshoppers, cicada, etc., for making holes in 
which to deposit eggs. 

Most insects have nine segments in the abdo¬ 
men, one in head and three in the thorax. Have 
the children count to see if that statement is true. 
Here, again, it may be necessary to use the hand 
lens, with some insects. 

When studying the beetle, have the pupils observe 
that the outer pair of wings is hard and used as a 
covering for the delicate, gauzy wings and thus 
protects them from dirt and other rough things. 
It will also be observed that some insects have no 
wings. Ants cut off their own wings when they 
have no more use for them. 

Touch upon the uses of insects. Let the child¬ 
ren tell stories about ants and bees as to their way 
of working. Compare the wisdom and industry of 
these two insects with the idleness and wastefulness 
of grasshoppers and crickets. 

Observe the transformation of carterpillars. 
Make drawings on a large scale of each insect stud¬ 
ied. 


20 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


Where do the insects spend the winter? What 
is the preparation of each for winter? 

Note: —The queen hornet may be found under 
the bark of old stumps or trees, the queen bumble 
bee in some protected comer, under boards, the 
beetle under rocks, in old logs and rotten stumps ; 
the remainder of the bumble bees, grasshoppers 
and butterflies die. 

What preparation is made by the Squirrel ? The 
Blue Jays? The Robin? The English Sparrow? 
For information in regard to our Indiana birds see 
Blatchley’s Geological Report of Indiana for 1897. 

1.—Physiology. 

For December , January and February. 

1 . 

Simple Lessons on the senses and what we 
learn through them. 

a. For example, the eye:— 

Location, number, shape of pupil, number of 
lids, how the lids move, how they are kept moist. 
Compare with same organ in grasshopper, in 
chicken, in cat, in cow. 

b. Touch .—Try touching an object with back of 
hand, with forehead, with cheek, with tongue, with 
finger tips. 

How does a horse feel ? A cow ? A cat ? A 
grasshopper? Which way is the best? 


MANUAIy OF NATURE STUDY. 


21 


c. Hearing .—Compare the outer ear of children 
with that of horse, rabbit, dog, cat, and determine 
which is most sensitive. Is it necessary to keep 
the ear clean? Does it ever injure the ear to take 
cold? Is the wax of any use to the ear? Are the 
hairs in the ear of any use ? Look in the horse’s 
ear for hairs. In the dog’s, the cat’s. Where is 
the bird’s ear ? What do we learn by means of our 
ears ? By means of our eyes ? Our fingers ? 

d. Smell .—Name of organ, nostrils. Compare 
with the same in horse, in dog, in cat, in hen, and 
determine which is the most sensitive. What 
pleasure do we get from the sense of smell ? Why 
should the organ of smell be placed so close to the 
mouth? Will a cold in the head injure the sense of 
smell ? How ? Should we breathe through the nose 
rather than the mouth ? Why ? Would a severe 
cold prevent us from breathing through the nose ? 
Draw the conclusion that it is best to avoid taking 
cold. 

e. Taste may be dealt with in same way. 
Discuss relative values of these senses, as to which 
is most important, which least, etc. 

2.—The Skin. 

Review the skin or rind of the apple, the peach, 
the plum, and grapes as to protection. Also the 


22 


MANUAL, OF NATURE STUDY. 


bark of the tree as to its purpose, as to its cracking 
open as the growth of the tree proceeds. From the 
foregoing facts reach the conclusion that our skin 
protects inner parts from injuTy: that our skin is 
scaly, and these scales become loosened as our body 
grows, and, instead of cracking open like the bark 
on the tree, they must be washed off so as to give 
room for the new skin to form and do its proper 
work. Is the skin of the same degree of thickness 
all over the body? Is it just the same on the soles 
of the feet and the palms of the hands as it is on 
the other parts of the feet and hands ? Can you in¬ 
crease the thickness of any part of the skin ? How? 

Why has the hickory bud such heavy scales in 
cold weather, and the geranium bud none ? Why 
is our skin thicker where most exposed ? How is 
the skin kept moist ? How does the moisture get 
through the skin ? 

Other matter that would be an injury to us, if left 
in the system, comes out with the moisture. Bring 
out the thought that there are thousands of these 
little openings on the skin that must be kept clean, 
hence the bath and clean under-clothing may be 
discussed here. 

The following conclusions in regard to the skin 
should be fixed upon the minds of the children: 

1. The skin serves for protection of the body. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


23 


It helps to warm us when we are cold, and to cool 
us when we are warm. It helps to purify the 
blood. 

2. There are tiny tubes or pores that open on 
the surface of the skin. These tubes permit the 
sweat and other impurities of the blood to escape. 

3. Bathing is necessary in order to keep these 
pores open so that impurities may continue to 
escape through them. 

4. In the morning, just after rising from bed, is 
the best time to bathe. 

5. After bathing, the skin should be dried well 
and rubbed with the hands until a warm glow sets 
in. 

6. Cool water is better than warm for bathing 
purposes. 

7. We should not bathe in a room in which the 
air is so cold as to chill the skin. 

8. On retiring at night, all clothing worn dur¬ 
ing the day should be removed from the body and 
a clean gown put on to sleep in. 

9. Our under-clothing absorbs the impurities 
as they escape from the pores of the skin, hence it 
is very filthy to wear under-garments more than a 
week without change. 

Cleanliness of nails and scalp should be urged. 


24 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


3.—Lessons on Teeth. 

1. Have the children examine the cat’s teeth at 
home, a . As to number, b. As to kind, whether 
long or short, blunt or sharp, c. As to use, how 
the cat eats its food. d. Are the cat’s teeth filthy 
and decayed? Do they ever need to be filled? 
Does the cat ever have toothache? 

2. For another lesson get reports from the 
children in regard to the dog’s teeth, comparing 
every point with that of the cat. 

3. A third conversation may be based upon the 
horse’s teeth. His manner of eating. What he 
eats, different kinds of teeth, color, etc. Tell the 
children to throw a piece of meat to the dog, a hand¬ 
ful of oats to the horse and an ear of corn to the 
cow and watch them eat. Are the teeth fitted in 
each case for the work they have to do? Why do 
they not feed oats to the dog, and meat to the 
horse? Do horses, cows and dogs often have the 
toothache? I wonder why. 

4. For a fourth conversation the children may 
now be interested in their own teeth, a . As to 
number, b. As to kind, temporary and permanent. 
c. How many are like the dog’s teeth? How many 
like the horse’s teeth? Then can a boy bite like a 
dog and also grind or chew like a horse? What 
food can a boy eat ? Will a dog eat every kind of 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


25 


food that a boy will eat? Will a horse? Why? 
Will a horse leave his oats to drink cold water, or 
hot coffee or tea? Will a boy? Will a dog eat hot 
potatoes and hot biscuits, and take a drink of cold 
water to cool the burning mouth and stomach ? 
Will a boy do that way ? Will a cat or dog leave 
between his or her teeth particles of food to rot and 
smell bad? Will some boys do that way ? Do cats 
and dogs have toothache ? Do boys ? Grown up 
boys ? 

Conclusion to be reached : 

1. Teeth are used for biting and chewing food. 

2. Sudden changes of temperature crack the 
enamel and thus cause decay. 

3. The use of tobacco is an injury to the teeth. 

4. Decaying particles of food generate an acid 
that causes the teeth to decay. 

5. The teeth must be thoroughly cleansed after 
each meal and immediately before retiring at night. 

6. In cleaning teeth a good tooth brush, or flan¬ 
nel cloth, with clean water of same temperature 
of mouth, should be used. 

4.—Lessons on the Bony Framework of the 
Body. 

Introduce this subject by a lesson on the umbrella, 
and let the children discuss freely the use of the 
stays and ribs. As analagous topics, the children 


26 


MANUAIy OF NATURE STUDY. 


will perhaps suggest the tent, with its pieces of 
timbers, center-pole, corner-poles, etc., for support. 
Almost any of the boys can describe a kite and tell 
what the frame work is for, and how it is made. 
From these simple illustrations, a chicken or other 
animal with which the children are well acquainted, 
may be introduced and bones examined. Develop 
the thought that the leg bones support’the body and 
asssist in locomotion; that the wing bones assist in 
flying; that the vertebrae or neck bones give elastic¬ 
ity to the movements of the head in gathering food 
or in drinking; that the ribs and back protect the 
heart, lungs and other vital organs as well as to 
give shape to the chicken. Strip the flesh from 
the drum stick and call attention to the slender 
shaft and enlarged extremities and let the children 
draw conclusions as to purpose in such arrange¬ 
ment. Notice the smoothness of the joints. Notice 
that the bone is hollow and filled with marrow. 

Imagine a chicken trying to make its form more 
beautiful by wearing a tight fitting band around 
its ribs. What would the other chickens think of 
such a foolish notion? Could a young chicken 
cock crow as loudly if he were so bandaged? Could he 
breathe as well? Do you think a young hen so 
distorted could be recommended to preside over a 
young brood of chickens? Would Madam Pussy 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


27 


look more handsome if she were bandaged around 
the ribs and abdomen? Would her heart have as 
much room to pump blood through the arteries and 
veins? Could she breathe as well? Would you 
like to have such a foolish kitty in your house? 
What sort of a coat does a dog wear? Did you 
ever feel how loose it is? I wonder why he does 
not wear tight-fitting clothes? The bones of boys 
and girls may now be discussed in comparison 
with the foregoing thoughts, putting emphasis 
upon the fact that the bones are to give shape, sup¬ 
port and protection, and to do these three things to 
best advantage, they must not be hindered in any 
way by tight lacing or bandaging the head or 
feet; also that improper position while sitting or 
standing is as pernicious as bandaging, especially in 
growing children. Trees grow crooked if they do 
not assume the proper position when young. 
Then will not children do the same? 

5. —How Tobacco and Alcohol Affect the 
Growth of the Bones. 

This is difficult to teach in this grade. All that 
can be done is to lead the children to see that a 
good house must have the very best of material. 
It must have a good foundation and good timber for a 
frame work. That good timber cannot grow in 


28 


MANUAL OF NATURE) STUDY. 


improper soil or improper air or poisoned water. 
That plants grown in one soil and atmosphere will 
develop into stronger plants than if grown in an¬ 
other. Let the pupils give instances. Since the 
plant which grows in the garden or the timber 
which makes 'the frame work of the house must 
have just the right kind of food and drink, so 
must the bone of the growing boy have pure blood 
in order to make strong bone in manhood. Alco¬ 
hol and tobacco poison the blood and therefore 
dwarf the growth of bone. 

Breathing . — a . Organs. b. Process of. c . 
Purposes, d. Position of body in. e . Bad effects of 
improper position of body, breathing impure air, 
improper breathing. 

Lhssons. 

1. Begin this subject by a breathing exercise 
by the whole school. Require the children to take 
a full breath, by standing erect and closing the 
mouth. What change is made in form of chest 
and abdomen while taking a full inspiration? 
During expiration? What muscles are used most 
in breathing? Could these muscles act freely if 
tightly bandaged? Why do we breathe? That 
which receives the air in inspiration is called the 
lungs. These lungs surround the heart, which is 
the blood pump. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


29 


Now what happens to the air in the lungs when 
they are pressed together by the ribs? What hap¬ 
pens to the blood pump? What effect would that 
have upon the supply of blood to the system? 
Why do we need the blood? Why do we need air? 

Teachers must explain that the blood must be 
purified and that our breathing helps to do that 
thing. That there are blood tubes and air pas¬ 
sages, capillaries and millions of air cells in the 
lungs, and that the blood trades off its impurities 
for the oxygen of the air. The lungs may be com¬ 
pared to a market house in that it is a place for 
trading. Which makes the best trade, the blood 
or the air? 

When does a gardner find it hard to get rid of 
his cabbage or radishes? When the market house 
is already full of such vegetables. When does 
the blood find it difficult to get rid of its impurities? 
When the air in the lungs is already full of im¬ 
purities. 

Why is plenty of pure air then necessary? How 
does stooping over while sitting at the desk affect 
the amount of pure air in the lungs? How does 
smoking cigarettes or tobacco of any kind affect the 
purity of air we breathe ? How do close, ill-ven¬ 
tilated school rooms affect the purity of air? Then 
how would that affect the purity of the blood ? 


30 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


How does the condition of blood affect our health ? 
Then would it be good for our health to remain in 
a privy or water closet too long? To sleep in a 
very close room? To breathe tobacco smoke? To 
lace the ribs and abdomen ? Why ? 

D .—Geography. 

Continue work of first year. Study of forms of 
solids, as cube, pyramids, sphere, etc. From the 
study of the sphere develop the shape of the earth. 
From conversations based upon readings from 
“Seven Little Sisters,” and similar books, develop 
as far as practicable at this stage, an idea of the 
earth as a whole. 

E . —Weather Study. 

Observations and morning notes, a. Dew, 
frost, or neither, b. Rain or snow, c . Direction 
of wind at 8 o’clock, a. m. d. Clear, cloudy, partly 
cloudy, raining or snowing at 8:00 a. m. See direc¬ 
tion for work in first grade. 

Literature .—See Wilson’s Nature Reader. 

1. Stories to be told to the children, a . “Clytie,” 
to be told in connection with the study of the sun¬ 
flower. b. “Story of the thistle,” to be told in con¬ 
nection with the study of the thistle, c. “Aurora.” 
d. “Aurora’s Tears.” e. “Aurora and Tithonus,” 
to be read in connection with the study of the 


manual of nature study. 


31 


grasshopper, f. “ Apollo’s Mother,” to be read in con¬ 
nection with the study of the frog. g. “Birth of 
Apollo.” A. “The Killing of the Python.” i. 
Apollo and Hyacinthns, Story of Phaethon. Iris, 
Diana, Diana and Endymion. The Hottentot 
Moon Story. Yum Sing. German Story of the 
Moon. The Ant and the Grasshopper, to be read 
in connection with the study of these insects. The 
Kind Old Oak. Callisto and Areas, or the White 
Bear. Story of the Peacock. 

Spring Stories:—1. Pluto. 2. Proserpine. 3. 
The Finding of Proserpine. 4. Robin Red Breast. 
5. How the Bee got the Sting. 6. Legend of the 
Spring Beauty. 7. Story of the Poplar. 

Gems to be Learned. 

1. Autuvin Gems .—Rain Shower, Wind Song, 
Little Purple Aster, The Sunbeams, Leaves at 
Play. 

2. Winter .—Chickadee, Snowflakes, The Hem¬ 
lock Tree, The New Year Song, Song of the 
Wrens. 

3. Spring Gems .—Spring, Celia Thaxter, All 
the Birds have Come Again, Swallow, Calling the 
Violet, Dandelion Fashions. 


32 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


THIRD YEAR. 

A . —Plant Life. 

1. Lessons on Leaves .— a. Compare as to form, 
margin, variation, surface. Take a number of 
large leaves, as sycamore, maple, linden, catalpa, 
iron weed, thistle, morning glory, pond lilies, i 
beans, grass, etc. First classify on basis of general 
outline, viz.: — Linear, lanceolate, wedge-shaped, 
spatulate, ovate, obovate, kidney-shaped, orbicular, 
elliptical. Keep repeating this exercise in several 
lessons until the children are fairly well acquainted 
with the common forms. Let them find that the 
forms lanceolate, kidney form, heart shape and 
ovate are widest near the base and taper toward 
the apex; and that the forms spatulate, wedged 
shape and obovate are widest near the apex and 
taper toward the base, while the forms orbicular, 
oblong, elliptical, linear and oval are widest at the 
middle and taper equally toward apex and base. 
Make drawings of leaves, showing the several 
forms. As to margin compare the leaves of cherry, 
peach, grape, apple, elm, beach, hickory, clover, 
bean, violet, goldenrod, aster, oak, maple, etc. 
Which of these leaves have entire edges? Which 
serrate? Dentate? Crenate? Sinuate, etc? For 
meaning of these terms, the teacher may consult 
any good botany. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


33 


As to division of blade, compare oak, maple, pas¬ 
sion vine, water melon, tongue grass, and learn 
the meaning of lobed, cleft, parted and divided. 
As to variation, a number of leaves should be 
used, representing those with petioles, without 
petioles ; with stipules, without stipules; with bud 
in axil, as common, simple leaf of almost any sort; 
without bud in axil, as observed in any leaflet of 
compound leaf; colors, red, yellow, green, varie¬ 
gated, etc.; venation, parallel veined, netted veined. 
Draw several kinds of simple leaves, showing 
venation, petiole, etc. Draw several compound 
leaves, such as horse chestnut, walnut, locust, 
acacia, strawberry. 

Lead the children to see that the bud of a com¬ 
pound leaf is found in the axil of the entire leaf¬ 
stalk and not in the axils of the leaflets. Most 
simple leaves have buds in the axil. The syca¬ 
more and a few others may seem like exceptions 
to the rule, as the bud in such trees is always 
under the cup of the leaf-stalk. 

Under variation, may also be discussed bud 
scales, as in hickory or lilac, modified for protec¬ 
tion of the green leaves within; the tendrils as in 
pea vines ; spines as in barbery ; bulb scales as in 
onion. This might be carried much further, but 
the foregoing is thought to be sufficient for third 


34 


MANUAIy OF NATURE STUDY. 


grade work. Leaf movements can be studied with 
considerable interest. Have the children observe 
the leaves of the locust in day time, and again at 
night when the leaves are asleep, and report 
change. Observe also oxalis, clover and acacia in 
same way. Observe that the leaves of these plants 
wake up at sunrise ready for their day’s labor. 
For a discussion of plant movements see Chapter 
VI of Caroline A. Greevey’s Recreations in Bot¬ 
any, published by Harper & Brothers. Also her 
chapter on leaves is well worth reading. 

McBride’s Lessons in Botany, by Allyn, Bacon 
& Co., and Elements of Botany, by Bergen, Ginn 
& Co., will be found very helpful to the teacher. 

2. Lessons on Flowers. — a. Study calyx, sepals, 
corolla, petals, stamens, pistils, b. Draw and de¬ 
scribe each. It will be better to postpone this part 
of the work until the Spring flowers are in bloom, 
as so many of the Autumn flowers belong to the 
Compositae, and, on that account, the teaching of 
the parts of a flower would be very difficult and 
confusing. Take, for example, a number of Spring 
Beauties, equal to the number of children in the 
room. Tell the pupils that the first, or outer cov¬ 
ering, is called the calyx. Ask the children its 
color, so as to be sure they have the right coat in 
mind. Then inquire about the number of parts in 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


35 


that coat, and tell them that each part is called a 
sepal. Now, how many sepals in the calyx? 
What are sepals ? What is the calyx ? What is 
its color? The next coat or covering is called the 
corolla. What is the color of the corolla ? Each 
part of the corolla is called a petal. How many 
petals in the corolla of the Spring Beauty ? What 
are petals ? What is a corolla ? Is a petal like a 
sepal ? What is the difference between a corolla 
and a calyx as to order of covering ? As to color ? 
As to number of parts ? As to name of parts? Is 
the calyx smooth or rough ? How is the inside of 
calyx as compared with outside in regard to smooth¬ 
ness ? How about the corolla ? Does a sepal look 
anything like a leaf? Does a petal ? Which looks 
the more like a leaf? In what way ? Do you 
find anything like veining in either of these parts 
as you do in leaves? Look closely with hand 
lens. 

Look for a whorl of several stalks with little, 
yellow pods on the end. These stalks are called 
stamens. How many stamens are there in the 
Spring Beauty ? Are they all of the same size ? 
How are they arranged with reference to the petals? 
(Opposite.) How does their number correspond 
with the number of petals ? With the number of 
sepals? You will observe a little, oblong case at 


36 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


the top of each stamen, that is called the anther. 
How many anthers are there? The anther is filled 
with a yellow powder, or very small grains, called 
pollen. Which way does the anther in the Spring 
Beauty open? 

The little thread-like stalks that support the 
anthers are called filaments. How many filaments 
are there? How many anthers? What are an¬ 
thers and filaments together called ? What are the 
petals together called ? Which whorl is called the 
calyx ? Which the corolla ? Which the stamens? 
How many parts in each whorl ? What are the 
parts in each w T horl called ? 

There is now one thing more for us to learn, and 
that is, the little stalk, which is large a the bottom, 
slender in the middle and divided into three parts 
at the top. This stalk is called the pistil. It 
looks like the pestle that the druggist uses to mix 
medicine with. Perhaps that is the reason it is 
called pistil. (From Latin Pistillum, which means 
a pestle. The word first came into use for such 
flowers as those of Fritillaria Imperialis, or crown 
imperial, where the pistil resembles a pestle and 
the perianth around it a mortar of an apothecary.) 
The large part at bottom of flower cup is called 
ovary, or little seed case, the slender part above is 
called the style, the three parts at top are called 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


37 


the stigma. The little grains in the ovary are 
called ovules. The teacher should now review all 
the whorls, and parts of each whorl. 

Next ask certain pupils of the class to bring 
to the school-room on another day some member 
of the Mustard family, or some other simple 
flower, so that the children can compare the parts 
of the new flower with those of the Spring Beauty 
in every particular. At another time, a different 
flower, and so on, until a half-dozen flowers have 
been analyzed and names learned. 

Up to this time, nothing has been said about the 
function of the parts of the flower. We may now 
begin this subject by introducing factories in gen¬ 
eral. A factory is a building in which goods are 
manufactured, as a mill, where flour and meal are 
made. Let the children give other examples, nam¬ 
ing in each case the raw material out of which 
must come the manufactured product. The flower 
of the Spring Beauty is a factory. It manufactures 
Spring Beauty seeds. The raw material is pollen 
and ovules. These two kinds of stuff must be 
mixed together at just the right time or the goods 
will be spoiled. The ovary is the hopper, the style 
is the tube through which the pollen must grow 
downward to the hopper, where the ovules are. 
The stigma must be moist when the pollen is let 


38 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


fall, otherwise it will not grow down the tube. How 
careful those little men (the stamens) that hold the 
pollen are! They certainly do not sleep much, 
for, just as soon as they know the stigma is moist, 
they must open their little baskets and let the pol¬ 
len fall on it. They must be quick in their work, 
for the stigma will not stay moist long. Like most 
other factories, the Spring Beauty closes up at 
night, by drawing its petals and sepals tightly over 
the inner parts of the factory, so as to shut out the 
night air, rain, and night insects that come to do 
harm. This factory, in course of a month or two, 
will turn out some fine seed, which will fall to the 
ground when the pod splits open, and be ready to 
start a new plant for another - year. Watch these 
Spring Beauties and Mustards to see what they 
will do. The old plant will die down when frost 
comes, but it, too, will spring up again at the re¬ 
turn of the song birds from the South. 

Deal with the mustard factory in same way. 
Also a few of the others studied. Watch for the 
seeds as the pods ripen. See (4) of this course. 

Make drawings of-spring beauty, mustard, but¬ 
tercup, bloodroot, or other plants studied. 

A Few Familiar Flowers by Margaret Warner 
Morley, published by Ginn & Co., is excellent for 
teacher’s use in teaching any kind of flower. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


39 


3. Lessons on Trees. — a. Distinguished by leaf, 
shape, bark, habit, b . Observe development of 
leaf-bnds. c. Study arrangement of leaves. 

The autumn months any time before frost will be 
the proper time to introduce the study of trees. A 
trip to the woods by the whole school is the best 
way to secure the right kind of interest. This may 
be done immediately after a study of the leaves in 
the school room, as given in the first part of this 
outline. The leaves of the sycamore, linden, catal- 
pa, cherry, beech, hickory, oak, elm, horse chestnut, 
walnut and locust have already been studied as to 
form, variation, color, etc. So it will be an easy 
matter now to select the trees that bear them. Be¬ 
fore starting on this visit to the woods it will be 
well for the teacher to supply each of the children 
with a number of cards on each of which may be 
written near the upper margin the name of a tree 
whose leaf has already been studied by the pupil. 
On entering the woods the children holding these 
cards will separately search for the tree or trees 
named on these cards. On finding the object 
of their search they will write on their respective 
cards a brief description of bark, and* shape of 
tree, write signature, pin the card upon the tree 
described and return to the teacher. These cards 
thus pinned to the tree will stand as evidence of 


40 


MANUAL, OF NATURE STUDY. 


ownership by discovery, providing no mistake has 
been made. The teacher will now go with the pu¬ 
pils, visit all the trees and note the good hits as 
well as the errors. 

Again, each pupil may be supplied with a few 
pieces of bark, with direction to place walnut bark 
with a walnut tree, hickory bark with a hickory tree, 
and so on, each kind of bark with its respective kind 
of tree. As before, the pupil should leave her name 
on a piece of paper pinned to the bark so that the 
teacher may know who discovered the tree. Test 
again with nuts, acorns and other fruits to any ex¬ 
tent the teacher may desire, or until the interest 
begins to lag. To vary the program let the child¬ 
ren gather a miscellaneous pile of leaves, then re¬ 
quire the children to sit down and sort them, put¬ 
ting leaves of one kind into one pile, of another 
kind into another pile, thus making as many piles 
as there are kinds of leaves. Try same plan with 
bark. 

After an afternoon’s outing of this kind there 
will be no difficulty in fixing the association of bark 
and leaf by reviews in the school room, which may 
be done by holding a single leaf, or a single piece 
of bark before the school for the judgment of the 
pupils. 

To fix the habit and habitat of trees, questions 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


41 


like the following may be asked: Where did you 
find your walnut tree, Mary ? On high ground or 
low ground? On black soil or red clay? What 
kinds of trees grow in the same neighborhood with 
the walnut? Where did you find yours, John? 
And yours, Susie ? Do you find any walnut trees 
along swamps or marshes ? What kinds of trees 
do we find in such places ? Where did you find 
your water beech, Willie? Your cottonwood? 
Quaking aspen (Quakin’ Asp)? Birch ? Willow ? 
Are these all neighbors to one another? Which 
are neighbors of the walnut? I wonder if these 
neighbors are an advantage or an injury to the 
walnut. (Here the struggle for existence may be 
discussed to some extent, taking care to bring out 
the benefits as well as injuries.) Call attention to 
the large elm that stands out in some vacant lot, 
as in a door yard, or open field, and compare with 
one that grows in the dense woods. What differ¬ 
ence in shape of head or top ? In the amount of 
ground covered by its shade ? In the density of its 
foliage? In the general thriftiness of the tree? 
Why these differences ? 

Take the walnut also as an example and notice 
its beautiful top when in the open field. Notice its 
condition when in the dense forest. Account for 
the difference. Invite the personal experience of 


42 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


each pupil in this respect, letting him name other 
trees that may have come under his immediate 
notice. 

Wallace says, that in every contest between the 
birch and the beech, the latter has been most suc¬ 
cessful. The former loses its branches at the 
touch of the beech and throws all its strength in 
the top trying to grow higher, but in this it fails 
to get as much light and moisture as the beech, two 
very essential things in the life of a plant.; hence 
the one is driven to the lakes and swamps, while 
the other holds possession of the field. The beech 
can flourish in the shade but the birch cannot, hence 
the advantage of the one over the other. The 
beech will also kill out the fir for the same reason 
as that given for the victory over the birch. But 
the old sturdy oak plants his roots deep in the earth 
and challenges the beech to mortal combat. The 
stubborn beech, so long the victor over all other 
competitors, refuses to yield and withdraw from the 
field, but hurls defiance at the mighty oak. The 
contest is on, the battle is long and hotly contested 
at every point, and at this date, the beech is still 
undaunted and is maintaining his ground with 
remarkable tenacity, while the oak shows signs of 
fatigue and is beginning to weaken. The present 
indications are that the oak, too, will have to seek 
grounds where the shade of the beech is still 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


43 


unknown. “The aspen, birch, fir, oak and beech 
appear to be the steps in the struggle for the sur¬ 
vival of the fittest among the forest trees of Den¬ 
mark.” See Wallace’s Darwinism, page 22. 

When the spring time comes and the 
buds begin to swell, the teacher should make a 
collection of sprays from the various kinds of trees 
studied in the preceding autumn. Attention hav¬ 
ing already been called in the second year work to 
the preparation of buds for the winter, a short 
review of that work will be a suitable introduction 
to the study of buds at bursting time. To begin, 
pass several buds of different kinds to each pupil 
and require the children to carefully remove the 
outer brown scale in each case. This may be done 
with a needle or common brass pin. 

Notice that all the buds are more or less sticky, 
but the horse chestnut is especially so; that others 
are fuzzy, hairy and scaly, and that all these dif¬ 
ferent characteristics are especially adapted for the 
protection of the delicate green parts of the bud 
within. 

Put fresh twigs of the different trees studied 
in a jar of water and watch the unfolding of the 
buds. See which unfolds first, the terminal bud or 
lateral buds. Which is the larger, the lateral or 
terminal bud of each of the several trees studied ? 


44 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


Which has the greater store of nourishment? 
Why should that be so ? What becomes of the 
scaly covering as the bud unfolds ? Watch closely 
the hickory bud so as to know what is done with 
the scales. Do the outer coverings of all buds 
do as the hickory scales do ? What change in 
color of the outer covering in the cherry 
or apple buds? Where is the flower bud 
found in cherry? Examine both lateral and 
terminal buds and note that the latter as a rule do 
not bear flowers, but leaves. Put twigs in a jar of 
water and watch the flowers come out from the 
lateral, but not often from the terminal buds. 

Have the children observe the scale scars of last 
year, and notice that when the scales of this year 
fall off they will leave the same kind of scar, a 
sort of scar ring, around the twig or branch. 
How often then do these scars or rings appear? 
Answer:—As often as the bud scales fall off, which 
is usually once a year. Then if a branch has four 
of these rings, how old is it ? Then can we tell 
the age of a branch ? How ? There are excep¬ 
tions to this rule but it will not be necessary to 
mention them here. 

C . —Study Arrangement of Leaves. 

After the foregoing study of buds has been quite 
well completed, attention may be called to the 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


45 


arrangement of buds or leaves on the branch. For 
this purpose collect very carefully young shoots of 
normal growth of the several trees studied.' Dis¬ 
tribute them to the pupils, giving to each as many 
specimens as kinds of trees. Begin with linden 
and require each pupil to hold in an erect position, 
a branch of that kind of tree. Place one hand 
upon the lowest bud or leaf. Where is the first 
leaf above that one as related to the lowest? 
Where the second ? The third ? The fourth, and 
so on? Which leaves or buds are vertically above 
the lowest ? Start with any other leaf and see if 
the same result is true. Try the elm and com¬ 
pare it with the linden as to arrangement. Take 
the birch, beech, walnut, apple, pear, peach, and 
note in each case the number of times it will be 
necessary to follow the spiral of buds or leaves 
around the stem before reaching the leaf vertically 
above the first. Now take the maple and box elder 
and have the pupils state the difference in leaf ar¬ 
rangement between them and the* other trees. 
This will lead to the terms opposite and alternate 
as applied to the position of leaves upon the stalk. 
The buds of all maples and box elders are oppo¬ 
site, while those of most other trees are alternate. 

At another time collect some gasses or garden 
plants of any kind and study their leaf arrange¬ 
ment in same way. 


46 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


Reviews: — Characteristics of Plants . 

1. Oak. — Leaves alternate, simple, nett- 
veined, with stipules deciduous. Flowers general¬ 
ly in catkins. Fruit an acorn. Bark of red oak 
with smooth stripes. Of white oak , scaly. Burr 
oak , furrowed. Black oak , black bark. 

2. The Birch. —Flowers in bright, yellow cat¬ 
kins. Leaves of black birch heart shaped and 
doubly serrate. Of gray birch , triangular with a 
long taper point, twice serrate. Of red birch , 
ovate, acute at both ends and doubly serrate. 
Arrangment alternate. The bark of black , or 
cherry birch , with an agreeable smell. Of gray , 
or white birch , scaling off in white strips and 
layers. Of red birch , loose, shaggy and reddish 
brown. 

3. Horse chestnut .—Leaves palmately com¬ 
pound, and composed of seven leaflets all diverging 
from the same point on the leaf-stalk, opposite. 
Flowers are in panicles or racemes, and yellow and 
reddish in color. Each panicle is as large as a lilac 
raceme. The fruit is a mahogany colored seed about j 
the size of a hickory nut, enclosed in a prickly burr. 

The buckeye is the American horse-chestnut and 
has five leaflets instead of seven, and the fruit burr 
is smooth instead of prickly. 


MANUAL OF NATURK STUDY. 


47 


4. The elms have alternate, simple leaves; 
straight veined and serrate edged. Flowers in clus¬ 
ters in axils of last year’s leaves, purplish or yel¬ 
lowish green. Fruit, dry, winged, or nut-like. 

Bark fairly smooth in young growth, and very 
rough and much cracked open, forming ridges of an 
inch or more in height. The slippery elm has red¬ 
dish colored wood and an inner bark sweetish, 
mucilaginous and pleasant to the taste. The leaves 
of the elms vary greatly. Those of the slippery 
elm are rough on the upper surface and downy 
on the lower; while those of the English elm, the 
American or white elm, the corky white elm and 
winged elm all have leaves smooth, especially above. 
The white elm has abruptly pointed leaves with 
petioles, while the winged elm has small, thick 
leaves with scarcely any petiole. 

The walnut includes in its family two genera, 
viz.: the walnut and hickory. The former has two 
well-known species in Indiana, viz.: the black wal¬ 
nut and butternut, or white walnut. The whole 
family is known by its alternate pinnate leaves, no 
stipules, and sterile flowers in catkins, fertile ones 
single or two or more in a cluster, bearing single 
fruits called nuts, enclosed in a shuck, which re¬ 
mains green in color until the fruit begins to ripen, 
after which time it begins to turn brown, and 


48 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


finally black. The black walnut is known by its 
minutely down}r stalks and shoots, and smoothish 
serrate leaflets. Also by its large, round fruit, 
from which the dried shuck does not fall away. 
Bark is very rough and deeply furrowed, even 
more so than the elm. 

The butternut is known by its oblong, sticky 
fruit and sticky leaves. The fruit is about twice 
as long as thick, and is held within a persistent 
shuck similar to the black walnut in that respect. 
The fruit of both black and white walnut is deeply 
furrowed. Why? 

The hickory is represented by several species. 
The shell-barked hickory is well known by its 
shaggy, hard bark, which almost invariably shells 
from below upward. Its compound leaf has five 
leaflets, the three upper much larger, and lance- 
ovate in shape. The nut is white and grows within 
a shuck, which easily falls away upon ripening. 
The large shell-bark has seven to nine leaflets, 
which are more downy beneath than those of the 
common shell-bark. The nuts are yellowish in 
color and much larger and thicker shelled than 
the common shell-bark. The fruit of both these 
shell-barks is edible. 

The pig nut is known by its rough, not scaly, 
bark, smooth leaves, leaflets five to seven, obovate, 
lanceolate, fruit bitterish. 


MANUAL, OF NATURE STUDY. 


49 


The sycamore , or button wood , is known by its 
large leaf, heart-shaped at base, which contains 
an inverted cup in bottom of leaf-stalk, which covers 
the newly-forming bud. Its whitish, green bark 
separates into thin plates, which soon fall away. 
This tree bears balls which contain seeds. 

For further discussion of trees, see Apgar’s 
Trees, Gray’s Botany, or Howe’s Science Teaching. 

4. Study Growth of Vegetables .— a . Radish. 
b. Onion, c . Lettuce. 

Suggestions : Plant a few seeds of each of these 
plants to be observed during growth. They may 
be planted in a common soap-box, or, if it be de¬ 
sired to have each kind separate, cigar boxes may 
be used, though a deeper box would be better for 
the radish. These should be planted in February, 
if the school-room is safe against frost, so that the 
children will be able to get as much of the life his¬ 
tory as possible before school closes in June. 

During the first year of this course, the children 
studied the forms and colors of leaves, observed 
their preparation for winter, their budding forth 
again in the spring. They also learned to dis¬ 
tinguish the parts of a plant, as root, stem, leaf, 
flower. 

In the second year, they studied the forms of 
leaves, and learned to associate them with the 
plants or trees on which they grew. 


50 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


Germination of seeds planted in school-room and 
preparation of leaves and buds for the winter, effect 
of frost, etc., were observed, the greater attention 
being given to the facts easily seen. Now, in the 
third year, the pupils should be led to see the func¬ 
tion of things; perhaps not all things, but some 
things. 

They are already learning, under the study of 
the parts of the flower, that the function of the 
flower is to make seed. It seems very appropriate 
to introduce this subject of Seed Factory , as given 
in (2) of this course, after the seeds of radishes, 
onions, and lettuce have been planted, since the 
logical inquiry would be, where did these seeds 
come from, and how were they made? 

The seed factory now having been established, 
as in (2), the inquiry must continue until the func¬ 
tion of leaf, stem and root is fairly well known. 

How does the root assist in the making of seed ? 
First, it holds the plant in place in the ground. 
Second, it sucks up moisture for the stem to carry 
up to the seed factory. In dry times, it is neces¬ 
sary for the roots to dig deeply in order to secure 
the proper amount of water. The roots of elms 
have been known to travel a distance of two hun¬ 
dred feet to reach a pond that distance away. Wil¬ 
low roots have penetrated to the depth of fifteen feet, 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


51 


and pushed through board curbing and brick walls 
to reach the water in open wells. 

In 1898, at Harry Pierce’s residence on Silver 
Heights, overlooking New Albany, the four-inch 
waste-pipe of fire-brick tiling, solidly cemented at 
joints, became completely obstructed by a solid 
mass of willow roots, so that the water could no 
longer find a (passage. On examination, it was 
found that these roots penetrated the cement and 
entered the pipe through these joints. The tree it¬ 
self stood several feet away from the tiling and as 
much as five feet above. From this, and from 
many other instances already on record, it is evi¬ 
dent that the roots are faithful to their trust as 
water carriers. They bare their backs, so to speak, 
and even heave up brick pavements, in their frantic 
efforts to obey the will of the superintendent of the 
seed factory. 

Let the children narrate instances in their own 
experience, and bring reports from the parents in 
regard to the energy of the roots. Call attention 
to the fact that the large roots provide themselves 
with tiny root-hairs to suck the moisture out of 
the very fine particles of dirt; in this way the 
dirt itself is screened back, thus providing the 
factory with pure, clean water,—a wonderful filter! 

Use the hand lens to see the root-hairs on wheat 


52 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


planted on blotting paper, or on cotton in a tumb¬ 
ler of water. These may be seen, however, very 
well without a hand lens. 

Our next attention is to the leaf. Do roots and 
flowers have to do all the work there is to be done 
in the seed factory ? What are leaves for ? If a 
leaf, the under side of it, should be covered with 
dirt, what change in color would that part of the 
plant undergo? Did you ever see the corn-blades 
and maple leaves covered with dust from the road 
during dry time in August or September ? What 
effect did the dust have upon the thriftiness of the 
plants ? Did you ever wash the leaves of your 
house plants ? Why did you do so ? Could you 
breathe as well with your nostrils filled with dust ? 
The nostrils, or stomata of plants, are most 
numerous on the under side of the leaf. Do 
you now see why the leaves should be kept 
clean ? Does breathing air have anything to do 
with the growth of our bodies? How? Does 
breathing air and moisture have anything to do 
with the growth of the plant? Then does the leaf 
have anything to do in helping the flower to make 
seeds? 

Call attention to the many thousand mouths 
(stomata) of the leaf, and the fact that each little 
mouth is opened and shut at exactly the right time; 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


53 


also, that the leaves act as stomach and lungs to 
the plant. What takes place in our lungs? In 
our stomachs ? In the lungs and stomach of the 
plant ? 

As there must be a boarding house to feed the 
men who do the work in basket factory, or iron 
foundry, so must there be a boarding house to feed 
the helpers in the seed factory. Now the leaves 
constitute that boarding house. The sap is brought 
up by the stem, air and moisture through the mouths 
of the leaves, and all these elements are worked 
over by the sun into the choicest food. But these 
workers cannot leave their respective places to come 
to the boarding house for their meals, so the food 
must be sent to them in some way. Did you ever 
carry dinner to factory men? Well, that is what 
veins are for, to carry food, and this they do quite 
cheerfully. Food is in that way sent to the roots, 
for they have to eat in order to grow and do their 
work; to the stem, for it, too, has to work in car¬ 
rying water to the factory and sap to the leaves, 
hence it must eat; to the seed factory itself, be¬ 
cause it also must eat to develop seeds, and the 
leaves eat what is left after supplying all the others. 
Refreshments are sent in form of sugar to the seed 
factory and the seed factory works it over into starch 
and deposits it in the food part of the seed. Then, 


54 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


when the seed is planted, the sun helps the little 
plantlet in the seed to change the starch back again 
to sugar, in which form it readily becomes soluble 
in water and hence food for the baby plant. What 
are our baby plants, radish, onion and lettuce that 
we planted a week or two ago now doing ? 

To show the influence of the sun in this boarding 
house, or in the formation of “leaf green,” place 
a plant in a dark place for a few days. What effect 
upon the color ? Upon growth ? Do all the help¬ 
ers in the seed factory get fed as well as when the 
plant was in the light ? How can you tell ? What 
change takes place in the growth of tree or plant 
after the leaves have fallen in autumn, or in ex¬ 
tremely dry weather? When caterpillars have 
eaten all the lungs and stomach of a plant, what 
change do you observe in the growth of the plant ? 
What change in growth of seeds ? Why ? Why 
should the onion beds, radish beds, and lettuce 
beds be kept clean from weeds and insects ? Why 
do gardners “thin out” their vegetables ? When 
are they too thick ? Point out the leaf, stem and 
root of the radish, onion and lettuce as you did the 
other plants. Compare market values of these 
plants. 

B . —Animal Life. 

1. Lessons on Snake , Fish, Frog , etc ,—Collect a 
garter snake, a frog and a fish, keep them alive in 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


55 


separate glass jars, pass them around the room for 
the children to examine. What sort of covering 
has the snake? The fish? The frog? Will the 
fish and frog shed their skins as will the snake ? 
The teacher should be able to secure some cast off 
snake skins for examination. Do the scales of the 
fish assist that animal in its movements through the 
water ? Do the scales of the snake help in motion ? 
Which way do the scales slope ? Why not forward 
instead of backward ? Where does a fisherman 
begin to scrape the scales from a fish? Why? 
Could we scrape the scales from a snake in that 
way ? Is the skin of the frog scaly ? Why would 
not scales be an advantage to the frog as well as to 
most fishes? Where do fishes live? Frogs? 
Snakes ? Touch the frog’s eye with anything soft. 
Has it any lids? Of what kind? Touch the 
snake’s eye in the same way. The fish’s eye. 
Why should not these animals as well as frogs and 
turtles have lids to draw over their eyes? Try 
turtles. Why should not the frog and turtle have 
upper lids as well as under lids ? Notice the round, 
smooth spot just back of the eye in the frog. . Do 
you find any such spot on the snake or fish? See 
if you can find such a spot on the grasshopper. 
Look just above where the long leg joins the thorax. 
Frogs and grasshoppers can hear, but that matter 
is still in doubt in regard to snakes and fishes. 


56 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


What sort of tongue has the snake? Why does 
he almost constantly keep darting it out of his 
mouth? Examine the frog’s tongue. Why is it 
long and sticky ? How does it catch its food ? 
Would a fleshy, sticky tongue be of any use to a 
snake ? Explain that the snake does not seek for 
gnats and flies as a frog does, but for much larger 
animals, such as grasshoppers, frogs, birds and 
mice, and that to hold such animals, a sticky tongue 
would be of no particular use. A frog sits nearly 
still upon its feet, slightly throwing its body and 
head forward as it thrusts out its long, sticky tongue 
to capture a fly or gnat that happens to draw too 
near. The snake, with mouth wide open, throws 
the front part of its body forward, and between its 
wide open jaws, siezes its prey. The lower jaw is 
composed of two parts, separated longitudinally, 
each part moving forward and backward freely upon 
the other. The upper jaw is provided with teeth 
that point backward toward the throat; also each 
half of the lower jaw is so provided. Then in 
swallowing food, the prey, while still alive, is held 
firmly between the upper jaw and one half of the 
lower jaw. The other half of the lower jaw is 
thrust forward for a new hold. The process of 
swallowing has been compared to a boy in a fixed 
position pulling a load towards him by means of a 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


57 


rope, hand over hand. In the case of swallowing, 
it is jaw over jaw instead of hand over hand. 

In the case of the frog there are no teeth in the 
lower jaw, neither is the lower jaw divided as in 
the snake. But the upper jaw is provided with a 
patch of very minute, short teeth in the roof of the 
mouth. How does that arrangement assist the 
sticky tongue in disposing of gnats and flies ? 

How do the mouth and tongue of the fish dif¬ 
fer from those of the snake and frog? Why should 
this be so? How does the snake breathe? The 
frog? The fish? Why should the fish have gills? 
Was there ever a time when the frog had gills? 
Why should not the snake have gills? How 
many legs has the frog? The snake? The fish? 
What stands for legs in the fish? The pectoral 
fins take the place of the fore legs, the ventril fins 
the hind legs. Describe the movements of each of 
these animals. Ask the children to watch the 
toads catch flies, gnats and other small insects 
under the electric lights, summer evenings. 
Where is the toad in the daytime? Look for it in 
flower-beds, gardens, or close along the fence or 
house, lying flattened out with its nose tucked 
downward, looking for all the world as if it were 
dead. How do these animals spend the winter? 
Hibernation. Are these animals of use to man? 


58 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


How? Then should they be killed just because 
they are toads, frogs, turtles and snakes? 

Call attention to the fact that there are but 
two kinds of poisonous snakes in Indiana, viz.:— 
the rattle snake and copperhead. Should the 
garter snake be destroyed simply because its 
brother rattle snake and copperhead do harm? 
The teacher should try to induce the children to 
lay aside their prejudices against harmless snakes, 
frogs, toads and turtles. 

2. The native wild animals common to locality .— 
Help the children to make a list of the birds of the 
neighborhood, distinguishing between those that 
migrate and those that remain over winter. The 
following plan may serve to show what can be 
done in the study of birds:— 

English Sparrows. 

1. Color of male; of female. 

2. Size of male; of female. 

3. Where do they live? 

4. What do they eat? 

5. Where do they spend the winter? 

6. Where do they nest? 

This study may be made in autumn and verified 
in spring. 

7. Where do they roost at night? 

8. Why do they not roost on the ground? 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY 0 


59 


9. Do they hop or run? Why do they not run? 

10. Are they of any advantage to man, or do 
they do more harm than good? How? Teacher, 
please see Blatchley’s Geological Report for 1897, 
page 935. 

Deal with other birds in the same way, until you 
have collected reports from all the birds in the 
neighborhood. Compare each bird named with 
the English sparrow in regard to bill, claws, habits 
of eating, migrating and nesting, use to man, etc. 
The Rabbit. 

1. Color. 2. Size. 3. Where does the rab¬ 
bit live ? When does he come out of his den ? Did 
you ever see him by moonlight ? Why is he some¬ 
times called Cotton Tail? What does he live on? 
When is he fat? Why fat at that time? Why is 
he very poor in hot weather ? Why do we not like 
to have Cotton Tail in our orchards, among the 
young trees and shrubbery ? 

What harm will he do in a garden ? 

Did you ever see a white rabbit ? 

How does the white rabbit differ from Cotton 
Tail? 

Let the children tell as much experience as they 
have about these rabbits. The Kansas Jack-Rab¬ 
bit may be mentioned in this connection, speaking 
specially of its long ears, long legs, and enormous 
size. 


60 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


In connection with every animal studied, be sure 
to talk about its manner of gathering food, and use 
or damage to man. 

3. Study common domestic animals .—Let the 

pupil make a list of the domestic animals found in 
the neighborhood, and compare them with the 
wild ones already mentioned. Study each animal 
from the standpoint of use, habit, how cared for, 
commercial value of animal, value of product, and 
determine, if yon can, where each came from. 

C . Physiology. (Winter Work.) 

1. Review of previous work:— (a) Senses. ( b ) 
Skin, (c) Teeth. ( d ) Nails and hair, (e) Bones. 
(/) Effects of clothing, shoes, etc. (g) Tobacco 
and alcohol. (A) Breathing. 

2. Study of foods'. — (a) Strength givers. ( b ) 
Heat producers, (c) Bone builders. 

Why does a man need to eat food ? Why do 
children need to eat food ? Is this true of all ani¬ 
mal life? 

Lead the children to see that every movement 
that is made is attended by loss to the system. 

Let the children apply the fingers to their wrists 
and count silently their own pulsations in a min¬ 
ute, the time to be given by the teacher. Let each 
child make his own record on a piece of paper. 
Also take record of breathing in the same way. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


61 


Then require the school to take vigorous exercise 
of some sort, and take records again. 

Why does the circulation increase in rapidity ? 
Why the increase in breathing ? 

To supply this waste requires food. Foods are 
of four kinds, viz.: The albuminoids, starch and 
sugar foods, fats, and mineral foods. 

Bread, milk,beans, peas, fish, lean meat and eggs 
are regarded as strength-producing foods. These 
are called albuminoids, because they contain 
albumen, a substance closely resembling the white 
of an egg. 

The starches are found in bread, oatmeal, pota¬ 
toes, beans, corn and wheat in any form, fruits, 
rice. 

The heat-producing foods are fats from animals, 
and oils obtained from nuts. By eating nuts, but¬ 
ter on our bread, fat pork or beef, we keep up the 
heat of the body. In cold countries, like Klon¬ 
dike, it is necessary to eat a great deal of fat. The 
natives eat the fat of walruses and seals. 

What would the natives of Cuba or the Philip¬ 
pines eat ? Would they have any use for walruses 
or whale blubber ? Why ? 

All meats are valuable as food. Pork is hardest 
to digest. It also contains a large amount of fat. 
Then would it be good food for a hot or cold 


62 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


climate? Why? Would it be good food for a 
student ? A minister ? A teacher ? A day lab¬ 
orer? Why? Winter or summer food? Why? 

Call attention to the fact that some hogs are 
afflicted with trichina , and on that account it is ex¬ 
tremely necessary to cook pork 'thoroughly done. 

Salted meats are not so digestible and nutritious 
as fresh meats. Milk is the best food of all. It 
contains casein , the stuff that cheese is made of, 
fats, the stuff that butter is made of, and a sugar, 
known as “sugar of milk.” But milk, to be health¬ 
ful, must come from good healthy cows that are fed 
upon good food and water. A disease in water or 
food, when drunk or eaten by the cow, may be 
transferred to the milk and hence to the boy or 
girl who drinks it. Typhoid fever has been con¬ 
veyed in that way to persons using the milk. But 
pure milk, cream and all, will support life longer 
than any other food. 

Eggs are highly nutritious, but when fried in 
grease, they are regarded as less digestible. 

Wheat flour owes its value to gluten contained in 
it. 

In baking bread, yeast is used to cause the bread 
to rise. Teacher should explain how this is done. 
Why can we not make as light bread from corn 
meal as wheat flour ? (Small quantity of gluten , 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


63 


the tenacious property of wheat.) Corn contains 
more fat than wheat, also more starch. Which 
would be the better food for Klondike, corn or 
wheat ? Why ? 

Beans and peas are good food because they con¬ 
tain so much proteids and starch. 

Potatoes contain too much water and not enough 
proteids to be regarded as the best food. 

Radishes, cabbages, turnips and carrots contain 
too much water and too little starch to be valuable 
as food. 

Has alcohol any properties whereby it may be 
called a food ? Has tea or coffee ? What are the 
claims for these drinks? See Martin’s Human 
Body or any other good physiology for full discus¬ 
sion of these subjects. 

What are mineral foods ? Why do we need salts 
of iron and lime and common salt ? What kind 
of food helps to make bone ? 

3. Water , why we use it .—Where may water be 
found? In lakes, rivers, ocean, wells, dew on 
grass, rain, fog, etc. 

Take a chunk of dirt the size of a base ball and 
squeeze it between two boards, putting on several 
pounds pressure, and the boards will become moist¬ 
ened from the water pressed out of the dirt, if the 
dirt is not too dry. 


64 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


Take any growing plant, submit it to pressure 
and tlie juice will ooze out. How is cider made? 
Cider, when fresh from the apple, is water holding 
sugar and other substances in solution. 

The juice from the sugar cane, from which we 
make molasses, sugar and candy, is simply water 
holding in its hands sugar and candy. What is 
the juice of the water melon? Cantelope? Peach? 
Grape? Anything? What is the liquid part of 
our blood? Where does the liquid come from that 
we find in a fresh blister from a burn, or from fric¬ 
tion caused by hard labor, or a rough place in the 
shoe rubbing upon the foot? Then can water be 
pressed out of muscle, skin, fat, or even bone, if 
the pressure be great enough? 

Man is about two-thirds water, “enough,” one 
author says, “if rightly arranged, to drown him.” 

Food for the plant must be dissolved in water 
before it can serve as food for the plant. 

In our lesson on root hairs we said that these 
hairs were little mouths* minutely small that reach 
out to the fine dirt and suck the water out. They 
serve as a filter, keeping chunks of sand, or lime, 
or clay, or any solid matter from entering in a 
solid state into the structure of the plant. But 
all substances soluble in water can be drawn up 

*This is based upon the principle of osmosis, and though mouths do not exist 
in root-hairs it is thought to be a simple way of presenting the principle to the 
children. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


65 


by these root-hairs and thus get into the structure 
of the plant. Dissolve a small quantity of table 
salt in a tumbler of water. Can root hairs now 
take up salt? Dissolve sugar. Can root-hairs now 
take up sugar when they drink the water contain¬ 
ing it? Could they have done so before it was 
dissolved? Can root-hairs take up grains of sand? 
See if sand will dissolve in water. Can root-hairs 
take up lime? See if lime is soluble in water. 
Then how do lime and sand or silicon get into the 
growth of the plant? We know these substances 
are there, for they form the strength to the stalk of 
wheat, grass, or corn, etc. It has been proved by 
experiment that when these substances are found 
in proper proportions they unite chemically, thus 
forming a substance that will dissolve in water. 
Thus united and thus dissolved in water the root- 
hairs have an easy task to perform in carrying 
these substances up to the factory. What, now, 
is the great use of water in plant life? I wonder if 
it serves the same purpose in animal life? 

Here the teacher should explain that the villi of 
the intestines are something like root-hairs dipping 
into the food which has passed from the stomach, 
and drinking the liquid which contains sugar, salt 
and other substances in solution. Can anything 
not dissolved be sucked up by these very minute 


66 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


absorbents and carried into the structure of the 
muscle or bone ? 

After the food is sucked up where is it conveyed ? 
To the blood vessels. What is the liquid part of 
the blood? Could new food be carried by these 
blood vessels to the lungs and all parts of the sys¬ 
tem, if there were no water in the vessels ? Could 
new food be carried into the muscles, be made over 
into muscle, to the bones and be made over into 
bone, without water ? No more than a plasterer 
can plaster a house without water. Then what 
must be the use of water to our bodies ? Lead the 
pupils to see that as the great bulk of everything 
we eat is water, it will not be necessary to drink so 
very much nor so very often. Frequent drinking 
is often a mere habit, and ought to be avoided. 
Care should be taken not to drink from the shallow 
wells in town as they may be more or less contamina¬ 
ted with the privies and other dangerous wastes of 
the city. Surface wells and foul cisterns should be 
avoided as carefully as you would shun smallpox 
or any other deadly poison. Thoroughly filtered 
water is the only safe kind, and then it is not safe 
if the filter is allowed to become foul. Water 
should also be used for bathing purposes. Soft 
water is recommended for that purpose. Here, 
again, purity should be sought for, because the 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


67 


skin is porous and therefore an absorbent. If the 
water contains poisonous gas, or poison in solution, 
the skin will take it up and carry it into the gen¬ 
eral circulation of the blood and thus seriously en¬ 
danger the health of the individual. For further 
remarks on bathing, see Second Year work and 
Jenkins ’ Physiology. 

4. Unwholesome drinks .—Under this heading 
all drinks containing Alcohol as an active principle 
may be considered. 

1. Cider. How made? Where does the alcohol 
of cider come from ? What would be the effect of 
habitual drinking of hard cider ? Real hard cider 
is about one-tenth alcohol. 

2. How is alcohol made ? -Make several experi¬ 
ments with alcohol to show its evil effects. First: 
put a small quantity in a cup or saucer and set fire 
to it. Will it burn? Second: treat the white of 
an egg in a cup or small vessel, with a quantity of 
alcohol. Stir for a few moments. What is the 
effect upon the egg? What then would be the 
effect upon all proteids, or albumenoids in the 
stomach if treated to a drink of alcohol? What 
effect upon the brain ? ^Nerves ? Muscles? Would 
a small quantity of alcohol as found in hard cider, 
if repeated several times a day for a few years, affect 
our system? How is beer made? What is the 


68 


MANUAL, OF NATURE STUDY. 


proportion of alcohol found in it? Would it be 
regarded as an unwholesome drink ? Why ? How 
is whiskey made ? What is the per cent of alcohol 
found in it? Is it a wholesome drink? How is 
wine made ? Does it contain alcohol ? How can 
you prove it ? Place a small quantity of wine in 
an evolution flask, to which should be attached a 
delivery tube, leading through a cold bath, for 
carrying off alcoholic vapor after it has been driven 
from the flask by heat very little less than the 
temperature of boiling water. The alcoholic vapors 
will be condensed as it passes through the cold bath, 
and may be received by a beaker or other vessel 
placed under the end of the tube. Touch a lighted 
match to the liquid gathered in that way and notice 
the alcoholic flame; a positive proof that alcohol 
exists in the wine. Beer may be tested in the same 
way. Likewise cider. What is fermentation? 
Give examples of fermentation, such as the changing 
of apple juice into hard cider, of grape juice into 
wine, of corn j uice and its distillation into whiskey, 
etc. 

All primary fermentations produce alcohol; then, 
why does not light bread produce alcohol ? By the 
action of heat it escapes with the carbon dioxide. 

Put a tablespoonful of sorghum and a cake of 
baker’s yeast into a tumbler of water and set it in 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


69 


a warm place, temperature of a summer day, twen¬ 
ty-four hours, and watch it “work,” fermentation. 

The effervescence which you see is caused by 
the escape of carbon dioxide gas formed therein. 
The alcohol is formed at same time, but does not 
escape so readily as the gas unless warmed to a 
much higher temperature, as in baking light bread. 

In secondary fermentation the alcohol escapes, 
thus leaving acetous acid or vinegar. In the first, 
or primary fermentation, the sugar in the juice is 
changed to alcohol; in the second fermentation the 
alcohol is changed to vinegar. 

Alcohol does not exist in the fruit, or sugar, 
neither does vinegar exist in the alcohol. A fossil 
made of limestone preserves the form of 
a once living animal or plant, but the limestone 
did not exist in the living tissues of the animal or 
plant; no more does alcohol exist in living corn, 
or grape, or apple. 

Fresh oysters are wholesome food, but fossil 
oysters would lie rather heavy on the stomach. 

Fresh corn is an excellent food, but, when 
changed by fermentation into whiskey, it is poison¬ 
ous to the system. 

To make this illustration vivid, the teacher 
should show some fossil plants or animals, oysters, 
if possible, so that children may see that nature 
makes a complete change in quality and properties. 


70 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


The following rules are quoted from Johonnot 
and Bauton’s Lessons in Hygiene, page 49:— 

“ I. We should not drink cider, because it is 
the nature of the alcohol in cider to create an appe¬ 
tite for more alcohol. 

“II. Cider deadens the senses and tends to 
make its drinkers ill-tempered and careless about 
doing right. 

“III. We should get our grape juice by eating 
the healthful and delicious grape. 

“ IV. When the grape juice has been squeezed 
out and its sugar turned into alcohol, it is a pois¬ 
onous drink, and we should not take it. 

“ V. Home-made wines, if produced by ferment¬ 
ation, are unsafe drinks, because they contain al¬ 
cohol. 

“VI. It is the nature of alcohol, in even the 
weakest wines, to create an appetite for more alco¬ 
hol. Thus wine tends to increase intemperance, 
rather than to decrease it, as some have supposed. 

“VII. Fermentation is a part of the process of 
making bread, but the alcohol is all evaporated 
out of the unbaked bread. We should not eat 
bread that is not well baked. It is not digestible. 

“VIII. Beers produced by fermentation con¬ 
tain alcohol. We should not drink beer of any 
kind. 


MANUAIy OF NATURE STUDY. 


71 


U IX. There is no alcohol in vinegar. We may 
safely flavor our food with it. Lemons and limes 
furnish more healthful acids than vinegar. 

M XI. Fermentation entirely changes the char¬ 
acter of anything it works upon. The germs that 
cause stewed fruits and preserves to ferment are 
not the alcoholic ferments, but they spoil the 
stewed fruit or preserves, and make them unfit for 
us to eat. 

“XII. The habit of chewing tobacco is not only 
disgusting, but very injurious, as the poison of the 
tobacco, the nicotine, is dissolved by the saliva and 
absorbed by the system. 

“XIII. The use of cigarettes by young boys 
weakens the muscles and hinders growth, besides 
causing other serious injuries. The healthy body 
does not require tobacco in any form and it should 
never be used.” 

5. Bad effects of tobacco .—To introduce this 
subject call for the different forms in which tobac¬ 
co is manufactured, viz.:—cigars, plug, fine-cut, 
smoking-tobacco, cigarettes, long twist, etc. Make 
a lesson or two of each form, showing pupils as far 
as possible the manner of manufacture. Take a 
cigar in hand, cut it with a sharp knife down one 
entire side, thus laying open the filler which in 
most cases, especially in cheap cigars, is made of 
scraps, and in many cases, of the filthy sweepings 


72 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


from the floor of the tobacco house. Collect a few 
“snipes,” old discarded stubs, and let the chil¬ 
dren smell the sickening odor from the poison that 
gathers in the mouth end of the cigar during pro¬ 
cess of smoking. If you can find a very strong 
pipe, borrow it, take it to the school room and 
show it to the children; disconnect the stem from 
the bowl and dig out some of the strong nicotine 
and let the children smell it. How nauseating it 
is! How are cigars made, by hand or by machine¬ 
ry? I wonder if the hands of the cigar makers are 
always clean and free from disease. Plug tobacco 
may be discussed in somewhat the same way. 
What is saliva good for? What does the tobacco 
chewer or smoker do with his saliva? Did you 
ever hear of “smoker’s sore throat?” A great man 
once died with such a disease. When, do 
you think, did Gen. Grant learn to use tobacco? 
Do you think he would advise other boys to do as 
he did? If he had waited to begin until he was a 
man, do you think he would have learned to use 
it? Why? Did you ever know a full grown man 
to begin the use of tobacco in any form? Besides 
the evil effects of tobacco upon bone, lungs, stom¬ 
ach, teeth, saliva, brain, and the thinking power, 
it is well to give some thought to the pocket-book 
side. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


73 


Compare cost of a loaf of bread with cost of a 
cigar. Compare values to the system. How long 
would it take a cigar smoker to smoke up a horse 
and carriage ? A house and lot ? A suit of clothes? 
Which would you rather have, a good watch or its 
value in cigars ? The teacher should continue such 
questions as long as they seem to have the desired 
effect upon the pupils’ minds. 

Some discussion of tobacco farming may be of in¬ 
terest. Also, the collecting, drying and shipping. 

6. Hints for health, a. Good eyesight, b. Care 
of ears. c. Care of throat, d. Necessity for breath¬ 
ing. e. Care of feet. 

Lessons. 

1. The eye . a. Make drawing on board showing 
coats, iris, humors, pupil, lens, retina, and optic 
nerve, b. Let the pupils make drawing, this time 
copying from the board, c. Study eyelids, lashes, 
and eyebrows as seen about the eyes of other pupils, 
and determine use in each case. Effect if the eye¬ 
lashes were cut away; if the eyebrows were shaved 
off. 

Use of the tears. Effect if the tear glands were 
destroyed and the tears dried up. Effect of dust 
under the eyelids. Give some directions concern¬ 
ing the removal of dust, cinders, etc., when once 
lodged under the eyelids. Effect of exposure to 


74 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


light. Long-continued looking at one object. 
Looking at bright objects like the reflection of light 
from a mirror, or from white wall or paper. Effect 
of trying to read or write with insufficient light, 
e. g.—in dusk of the evening. 

Near sightedness and cross-eyes should receive 
proper attention. 

2. The care of ears. Next to the eyes, the ears 
are most important, and should receive our atten¬ 
tion. The ear should be taught in its three parts, 
external , middle and internal. The outer ear gath¬ 
ers the sound waves and therefore should be clean. 
The wax is of use in keeping out insects and pro¬ 
tecting the internal ear from exposure to cold air. 
While it should not be removed entirely, yet it 
should not be allowed to harden at the opening and 
thus clog up the passage way, or to create too much 
pressure upon the tympanum. 

Children should be cautioned against the practise 
of screaming or whistling in another’s ear. Such 
practise is dangerous to the ear. Catarrh causes 
deafness, hence care should be taken to prevent 
taking cold. Do not pick the ear with a pin or 
other hard substance. Avoid the use of tobacco, as 
that will produce inflammation in the ear, and dry 
the tympanum and thereby cause confusion of 
sounds. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


75 


3. Care of the throat . Show that the apparatus 
for the voice is in the throat. 

Illustrate by chalk box or other device with fine 
strings stretched and fastened across the top. Pick 
the strings between the fingers as you would a banjo. 
Notice the change in sound when the strings are 
tightened or loosened. A violin, banjo or guitar will 
be a still better illustration. In either case the 
makingof a new sound requires change of fingering, 
tightening or loosening of the string. 

What produces the change of sound in our 
voices ? While singing the musical scale let the 
children place their hands upon their own throats 
and observe the muscular changes that take place. 
With a severe cold could these muscular changes 
be made as easily ? If the strings of a violin were 
covered with a sticky substance would they give us 
as clear a sound? When the vocal cords are 
covered with phlegm, as they must be during a 
severe cold, can you speak as clearly ? What tubes 
belong in the region of the throat? (The tube 
which leads to the lungs and the one to the stomach, 
—two very important ones). If the trachea be in¬ 
flamed, what effect npon our breathing? It pro¬ 
duces a cough which only adds to the inflammation, 
and is otherwise very disagreeable, not only to our¬ 
selves but to others. A heavy cold will often cause 


76 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


sore throat and swelling of the tonsils. Such a 
condition injures the voice, hinders easy breathing, 
makes swallowing difficult and helps to stop up the 
nasal passages. If allowed to continue, chronic 
catarrh is unavoidable. The use of tobacco or 
stimulants only irritates the inflammation. 

Avoid wearing comforters or other warm bandages 
around the neck, as such over-care may result in 
conjested condition of blood in the throat. 

4. Necessity for bathing . See remarks on Sec¬ 

ond Year work in regard to bathing. 

5. Care of feet. Tell stories of Chinese mothers 
who bandage the children’s feet in order to make 
them fashionable. Make a drawing of the arched 
form of the foot, and show that the bones of the 
foot must be free to act in a natural way. What is 
the benefit to be derived from the arched form of 
the foot? What effect would a very tight shoe 
have upon the arch ? What effect upon the freedom 
of the toes ? Then what effect upon easy walking ? 
Have you ever seen a shoe made so that the little 
heel would rest under the hollow of the foot ? Did 
you ever wear such a shoe? Where should the 
heel tap be? Why? Is the “toothpick” shoe a 
good one for the toes? Why? Which is more 
sensible, a low heel or a high heel? How high 
should the heel be? How high is your natural 

'heel as compared with the ball of your foot? 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


77 


Tight shoes will cause corns, which, when once 
formed, are very troublesome. Any rough place in 
the shoe, pressing upon the foot, if long continued, 
will cause an increase of thickness in the cuticle; 
such increase, when it presses so hard upon the 
ends of the nerves beneath as to cause pain, is a 
corn. A corn may be destroyed by cutting it thin 
with a knife and removing the pressure. 

Tight shoes will also cause in-growing toe nails, 
bunions, etc., all of which are veiy painful and 
interfere very much with the elasticity of step, 
and gracefulness of movement. 

Hosiery with holes in the toes or heels should 
be avoided, as they are liable to become wrinkled 
or folded in such a way as to bring on corns. 
Cleanliness of feet and foot-wear is essential to the 
health of the entire body as well as the feet. 

Rubbers should not be worn in the house, as 
they prevent the excretions of the feet from escap¬ 
ing. If these poisons do not escape they will be 
reabsorbed by the skin and thus injure the 
system. 

7. Ventilation .—(See breathing in Second Year 
work.) It is just as necessary for the lungs to be 
fed as it is for the stomach; and as the stomach 
requires pure and wholesome food, even so must 
the lungs have pure air. Air breathed over again 


78 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


is unfit for healthful respiration. If we live in 
rooms so tight that the air cannot be changed, we 
cannot avoid breathing again and again what we 
have thrown from our lungs as waste matter, and 
also the poisonous matter that is constantly pass¬ 
ing through the openings of our skin. How may 
we get rid of these poisonous gases and at the 
same time receive plenty of pure air instead? 

Experiment:—Make two apertures in the same 
window by raising the lower sash and pulling 
down the upper. Hold a burning taper first at 
one opening and then at the other, and note the 
result in each case. Close the window and try the 
experiment at the upper and lower part of the 
open door and note result. Again, close the door 
and raise the lower sash of a window high up so as 
to give one large opening, try the burning taper 
at the upper and lower part of the aperture and 
note the result. In each of these experiments let 
the pupils describe what the air is doing, and let 
them draw the conclusion that the foul air will 
leave the room through any opening large enough 
to let pure air in. The thing to be avoided is di- J 
rect draft, or wind, hence care should be taken to 
open a door or window on a side opposite from the 
wind. To avoid a direct draft in a sleeping apart¬ 
ment, place a board about three or four inches 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


79 


wide under the entire lower sash; such an arrange¬ 
ment will prevent rain or snow from blowing into 
the room and will at the same time permit fresh air 
to enter between the sashes. For sitting rooms, 
the old fashioned fire place, or open grate, is the 
best means of ventilation. What makes the fire 
roar in open fire places? And the flames to wal¬ 
low up the chimney? (Ascending current of air 
from the room.) Which is better ventilation, a soft- 
coal burner with an open hearth or a hard-coal base- 
burner ? Why ? Why does the base-burner cause 
head-ache so often conplained of in warm rooms ? 
(Because the draft through the fire is not strong 
enough to carry off the bad air of the room and 
also because carbon monoxide leaks out of the 
stove and diffuses itself throughout the room, 
thus rendering the air extremly poisonous and 
dangerous.) 

Enumerate instances of persons poisoned by escap¬ 
ing gas from a base-burner. Tell the story of the 
Black Hole of Calcutta, where one hundred and forty- 
six persons were shut up for the night and only twen¬ 
ty-three were found alive at dawn of day. Also, one 
stormy night, one hundred and fifty persons were 
crowded into the cabin of a ship and only eighty 
came out alive. What makes children listless and 
drowsy in a warm, close school room? Why do 


80 


manual of nature study. 


you go to sleep at church sometimes? Why do 
you get up with a headache some mornings ? Will 
it pay to use every effort to get good air in all our 
rooms ? 

d . Weather study. Continue work as outlined 
for second year. See outlines for both first and 
second years. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


81 


FOURTH YEAR. 

1. Rapid review of third year's work . 

2. Uses of leaves, roots , and sap. 

Leaves . See lessons for third grade, reviewing 
form, margin, variation, surface, etc., and proceed 
to the structure of the leaf. Very carefully strip off 
the thin outer covering of any fresh, plump leaf and 
notice its transparency. Have the pupils do the 
same with their leaves. Compare with outer skin 
on fresh, ripe grape; with outer skin of a very ripe 
apple; with the epidermis of our own skin, and 
draw the conclusion that the epidermis of the 
leaf is used for the protection of the inner part. 
Then the inner portion must be very important to 
the life of the plant, otherwise it would not need 
protection. 

The epidermis of our own skin, we said in the 
work for the third grade, has thousands of pores 
through which perspiration may pass to the 
surface and escape. Examine the epidermis of the 
leaf and see whether it is constructed in the same 
way. It will be necessary to use a good hand lens 
for this examination. The larger openings called 
stomata are found on both sides of the leaf, 
but most numerous below in higher land plants. 
This discovery leads ns to believe more strongly 
than before that the inner portion of the leaf must 


82 


MANUAL, OF NATURE STUDY. 


have some important work to do, or else it must 
contain in store something of infinite value to the 
plant; otherwise it would not go to the trouble of 
constructing these stomata through the epider¬ 
mis, thus making thoroughfares, or gateways, con¬ 
necting the inner green mass with the outside world. 
Why does the detached leaf wither when exposed 
to dry air or sunlight? Try the experiment to see 
that such a result is true. Why do corn leaves 
curl up during the heat of the day in dry weather, 
and open out again at night ? Invert a tumbler or 
glass fruit jar over a bunch of fresh leaves, and in 
a few minutes observe the moisture collected on 
the inside of the vessel. Where did the moisture 
come from? Can you now see any use for the 
pores of the epidermis? Why do plants look so 
bright and green after a warm spring rain ? Do 
the stomata have anything to do with it ? How ? 

We have already learned that root hairs draw 
moisture out of the soil, and with the moisture all 
dissolved substances, the water serving chiefly as a 
carrier, or vehicle, for conveying material to the aid 
of the seed factory. 

We also learned that the villi of our elementary 
canal opened their mouths just wide enough to 
drink the dissolved portion of our food, the water 
or liquid serving as a carrier for the food that could 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


83 


not be taken into the system any other way. So 
it is with the stomata of the leaves. They breathe in 
order to get carbon from the air. The plant needs 
carbon to make sugar and starch. In fact carbon 
enters into the structure of woody fiber, bark and 
everything about the plant. It is carbon that 
makes wood such a useful article for heating pur¬ 
poses in our stoves and furnaces. It is carbon 
that makes beans, corn, wheat, potatoes, etc., use¬ 
ful foods. Thus it is clear that carbon must get 
into the plant some way, but how ? Carbon is a 
solid and can no more than sand be dissolved in 
water. But old Mother Nature provides a remedy. 
She knows that oxygen has easy access to the leaf 
factory, coming and going continually. She also 
knows that oxygen is in love with carbon and if per¬ 
mitted to do so, the two will join hands. 

In this union carbon is no longer a solid, but a 
gas, and in this condition effects an easy entrance 
through the portals of stomata to the plant-sub¬ 
stance factory. Old Mother Nature here turns 
sunshine loose. Sunshine, like a jealous lover, 
separates the newly wedded pair, and, leading oxy¬ 
gen out through the upper portals in the free open 
air, leaves carbon a prisoner in the plant-substance 
factory to work, and form new associates in the fiber, 
tissues, and seeds of the plant. Oxygen and carbon, 


84 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


united in the way mentioned above, are together 
called carbon dioxide and when dissolved in water it 
is called carbonic acid. It is carbonic acid that es¬ 
capes from our lungs. We have no more use for this 
acid gas, and hence throw it out with our breath. The 
plants are glad to take it up. This they do as just 
stated, by breathing it through the stomata of their 
leaves. The plant-substance factory is not in 
operation at night, so carbonic acid gas is allowed 
to escape to the atmosphere until morning. 
Throughout the day, if the factory is running at 
full speed, carbon dioxide is separated as rapidly as 
it arrives, the oxygen returning to the air for more 
carbon, securing which, it makes another visit to 
the factory; and thus the process goes on through¬ 
out the entire plant growth. 

The vapor that we collected on the inner surface 
of the tumbler in our experiment with the 
green leaves a while ago was given off by the 
leaves through the stomata. This process of 
giving off vapor is called transpiration. Again 
experiment with the plant a few days by putting 
some in a dark place, others in a room of medium 
light, and others in a strong light for the same 
length of time. Note the difference in color and 
in growth. Account for the difference. Take 
another body of plants and separate it into groups 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


85 


of equal size, age and strength; from the one group 
cut off all the blades from the petioles, repeating the 
operation as often as new blades appear. In every 
other respect the same favorable conditions should 
surround both groups of plants. At the end of one 
week note the difference in growth of main stalk 
both in thickness and in length. Why do potato 
beetles injure the growth of the potato? What 
effect do caterpillars have upon the growth of plums, 
apples, peaches, gooseberries? Why? The leaf, 
then, must be a sort of factory auxiliary to the seed 
factory. It is in the leaf that all the material 
brought up by the roots or absorbed through the 
stomata is made over into plant substance. But 
our experiments prove that this factory cannot work 
in the absence of sunlight and proper temperature 
and moisture. Sunlight, then, is one of the factors in 
this factory. But these leaves do more than take in 
water. They breathe thesame as we do with our lungs. 

Leaves also serve as shade for the protection of 
the delicate young shoots or branches against the 
scorching rays of the sun. Also to give slope to 
carry the rainfall and dew to proper places, where 
the plant can be served to best advantage. In fact 
the whole upper surface is more or less concave, 
somewhat like the palm of our hand, and therefore 
capable of holding water. 


86 


MANUAL OP NATURE STUDY. 


Frequently the petiole is grooved upon the upper 
surface so that the surplus water may be carried to 
the stalk, or trunk, and hence down the plant, moist¬ 
ening its entire surface. If the rain continues un¬ 
til the leaves are loaded with water, the petioles 
bend with the weight, the margin and apex of the 
leaf gradually straighten and turn downward, allow¬ 
ing the water to flow as from a roof, dropping from 
leaf to leaf, branch to branch, making its way to 
the very outer edge of the longest limb, from which 
it pours upon that part of the ground immediately 
over the finest roots of the tree; thus the leaves, after 
they themselves are supplied with drink, turn the 
surplus over to the roots, a very clever act 
indeed. 


Summary:— 

Leaves are used (1) for the assimilation of food, 
making plant-substance; (2) for transpiration of 
moisture; (3) for respiration, breathing in carbon 
dioxide and throwing out oxygen; (4) for shade, 
protecting delicate shoots and fruit from heat of sun; 
(5) for sloping off the rain so that it may fall with¬ 
in easy reach of the finer roots of the plant; and 
we may add for shading animals and man from the 
hot sunshine. At least the shade is so utilized for 
such purposes. Also for medicine, and tea to 
drink. 


MANUAL, OF NATURE STUDY. 


87 


Roots. 

As an introduction to the subjeet of root function , 
the teacher should collect, or have collected, an as¬ 
sortment of roots, such as radish, to represent the 
fleshy root, onion to represent fibrous root, the 
dodder, or mistletoe for parasitic roots. Under¬ 
ground stems such as the potato tuber should be 
studied to know that they are not roots. Real roots 
do not bear buds, neither do they have leaves or 
leaf scars. The eye of the potato is a bud in the 
axil of a leaf scar, hence the potato is a stem. 
Other examples, such as Artichoke, the root stalks 
of garden Iris, Solomon’s Seal, Indian Turnip and 
Trillium should also be examined to show the var¬ 
ious modifications of under-ground stems. Bring 
in a whole “potato hill” if possible, so that the 
children may see that the roots of the potato plant 
are very different in structure from the tuber, which 
is simply a store house for the starch of the plant. 
Into this store house or potato, the entire life of the 
plant goes to sleep through the winter, and is 
called into existence as new plants at the return 
of spring. The first and most important use of 
roots is the absorption of water, not for the sake of 
the good to be derived from water especially, but 
for the food-salts dissolved in the water. See re¬ 
marks for third grade. 


88 


MANUAL, OF NATURE STUDY. 


The second use of the roots is to fix and hold the 
plant in the ground, or natural sub-stratum. In 
most cases the same roots perform both offices, as 
bean roots, corn, ragweed, hogweed, any kind of 
tree. Corn roots may be an exception, in that after 
jointing, this plant sends from a lower node a 
whorl of braces called aerial roots, whose chief office 
is that of guy rope to the top-heavy corn stalk. 

Some plants, such as creeping vines that grow 
to cover a whole side of a stone or brick church, 
have two kinds of roots: one kind in the ground to 
draw nourishment from the soil, the other the 
clinging roots which attach themselves to the stone 
wall for support. To prove that these clinging 
roots do not absorb food supply, cut off the upper 
part of the vine from its source of supplies in the 
earth, and that part will soon wither and die. 

To prove that the roots in the earth do not 
give mechanical support to the stalk, remove the 
vine from its fastenings in the wall, and that plant 
will immediately fall to the earth. 

In fleshy roots, such as radish, turnip, parsnip, 
etc., aside from mechanical and vital suppport to 
the plant, a third use is required, viz.: that of stor¬ 
ing up starch, fat, sugar and other reserve mate¬ 
rials to be drawn upon by the plant at another 
period in life. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


89 


Where is the store of nourishment in cabbage ? 
When does the plant draw upon it to support 
the seed factory ? (The next year.) How about 
the turnips ? The radish ? Parsnip ? In what 
respect are these roots like the potato tuber ? How 
different ? 

See third year work for illustrations of the per¬ 
sistence and energy of subterranean roots, for ex¬ 
ample, the willow. 

Nearly all the fleshy roots are biennial plants, while 
the annuals are fibrous. This provision is good 
economy in nature, as the biennial plant must 
have a rich supply of food on hand to develop the 
second year stalk that bears the seed, while the 
annual exhausts all its energy in the development 
of seed the first year. Where is the store-house 
of the annual ? (In the seed.) 

The storehouse of the biennial during the first 
year is underground. Where is it at the close of 
the second year ? Plant a few grains of corn in a 
box of dirt. In a few days examine the growth. 
Which part of the young plant appeared first, the 
root or the stalk ? Why should the root appear 
first ? The first root is called the tap root. When 
does it cease to be of service to the plant ? 

Let the children examine the several stalks that 
still hold the tap root and shell of the grain from 


90 


MANUAL OP NATURE STUDY, 


which the stalk grew. What has become of the 
food part of the grain ? What is now the condi¬ 
tion of the tap root ? 

Can you tell when the tap root ceases to be of 
use to the plant ? What about its growth after its 
use has ceased ? A few lessons on survival of the 
fittest would be of interest in connection with this 
subject of roots. 

In a box of radish seed sow also some crow-foot 
grass seed, and note the result as to which is mas¬ 
ter of the garden. 

On your way to school some autumn morning 
pull up by the roots some crow-foot grass, timothy, 
Jimson weed, and some other weeds and grasses, 
and let the children discuss the merits of each 
plant as to its ability in the struggle for existence, 
taking into account the adaptability of the roots to 
the maintenance of the plant. 

The Sap. 

As an introduction to this subject, review stems, 
and show clearly what the stem is, as distinguished 
from the other parts of the plant ? How does the 
stem assist the leaves and roots in their work of 
nourishing the plant ? 

Review the purpose, or function of the leaf. 
Also of the roots. 


MANUAL OF NATURE} STUDY. 


91 


Show that the material absorbed in solution 
by the roots must be conveyed to the leaves for 
making into plant substance, and that this solu¬ 
tion is sap. The leaves receive the sap from the 
stem, as raw material. By the action of sunlight 
this raw material and carbon-dioxide are changed 
into plant-substance and distributed to the growing 
parts of the plant. 

Further than this, sap cannot be discussed in 
this grade. 

3. Study of useful roots and tubers , as beets , 
potatoes , etc—a. Form. b. Structure, c. Uses. 

This topic has been sufficiently covered in (2) of 
this course. 

4. Study of grains and grasses , as wheat , corn , 
oats , timothy , clover , etc .— a. Harvesting, b. Mar¬ 
keting. c . Commercial value. 

Unfortunately, it is difficult to obtain material of 
growing wheat, oats and timothy during school year. 

If possible to bring these to maturity by plant¬ 
ing in boxes, do so, and consider them all at the 
same time. 

Points to be observed: 

1. Kind of stem, whether hollow or pithy. 

2. Examine the nodes to see if the hollow, or 
pith, continues throughout the entire length of the 
stalk, 


92 


MANUAIy OF NATURE STUDY. 


How do the nodes compare in size to the inter¬ 
nodes ? 

3. Arrangement of leaves, whether opposite or 
alternate, and of what rank. Also, the peculiarity 
of the bases of the leaves. Notice that in these 
particulars these grains are nearly alike, and dif¬ 
fering only in size of stalk and manner of produc¬ 
ing fruit. 

Clover , of course, forms a conspicuous exception 
to the foregoing, as it belongs to an entirely differ¬ 
ent family, viz., pulse, and will have to be consid¬ 
ered separately. The others all belong to the 
grass-family. How does the termination of the 
stem of corn differ from that of wheat or oats? 
Where is the pistil of corn ? Where is the pollen? 

Compare each with the others as to root. Which 
is the best fitted for battle in life ? Why ? 

Next take up the seeds themselves and notice 
that all are covered with a transparent shell for 
protection. Note the color of each grain. 

Where is the starch located ? Why so much of 
it ? What part of the grain does the squirrel like 
best? Why? Find the little plantlet of corn. 
The plantlet of wheat. Soak the oats and timothy 
in warm water a few days, and point out the germ 
in each. How many ears of corn on a stalk? 
How many heads of wheat? Of oats? Of timothy? 


MANUAL, OF NATURE STUDY. 


93 


How many rows of corn to the ear? How many 
grains ? How many grains of wheat to the head ? 
Of oats ? Of timothy ? 

Describe manner of harvesting wheat in the first 
settling of this country. Describe the evolu¬ 
tion of the present method of taking care of wheat 
and oats, including the gathering and threshing. 

Method of hay harvesting, stacking, baling. 
Method of gathering corn in “ye olden times,” and at 
present. Comparative values in the market at 
home and abroad. What home industries are in 
existence because of the production of these grains? 
(Milling, distilling, cattle and hog raising, etc.) 

B. —Animal Life. 

1. Interdependence of plants and animals. 

Enumerate the animals that depend upon plants 
for a living, viz.:—Elephant, giraffe, cows, horses, 
quails, grouse, pheasant, barn yard fowl, etc. 
What does the elephant eat ? cows ? horses ? quails, 
grouse or prairie chicken ? barn yard fowl? English 
sparrow? squirrels ? rats ? mice ? rabbits ? Such ani¬ 
mals are herbivorous, but many of them also seek 
insects and the flesh of dead animals, but such 
habit of diet does not excuse their dependence upon 
plants. 

What constitutes the food of cats ? dogs ? tigers ? 
panthers? wolves? lion? eagle? hawk? bear? leop- 


94 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


ard? hyena? Are these animals in any way de¬ 
pendent upon plants ? How ? 

How does the hedge-hog live ? How the mole ? 
the shrew? ground hog? whippoorwill? bats? 
These live upon insects. Are they then depend¬ 
ent upon plant life? How? Suppose all vegeta¬ 
tion to be destroyed. Describe the scene that 
would follow in the animal kingdom. 

We have already learned that the animal life 
must have oxygen to breathe, in order to relieve 
the waste and purify the blood. We also learned 
that plant life, under the influence of the sun, is 
continually supplying that oxygen. Plant life 
demands for its food carbon dioxode; the animal 
life furnishes this food to the plant. Thus there is 
a constant interchange of food between the two 
kingdoms of nature. All the elements necessary 
for animals’ food is in the soil; then why could not 
animals and man live without plants ? 

Let us illustrate. All the material of our cloth¬ 
ing is on the sheep’s back or cotton field; then why 
do we not go to the sheep’s back or cotton field 
when we need a suit of clothes ? 

All the material of our chairs and school furni¬ 
ture, except castings, is found in a sugar, beech, or 
walnut tree; then why not go to these trees and 
load our wagons with some choice furniture to 


MANUAL OF NATURE) STUDY. 


95 


take to our tomes ? What is necessary to be done 
before tbe sheep’s back will furnish our clothing, or 
the tree onr furniture ? Then what must be done 
before the elements of the ground will nourish onr 
bodies? As the manufacturer and tailor change 
the wool into clothing, and the cabinet maker the 
trees into furniture, so do plants imbibe the elem¬ 
ents of soil and other foods for animals to eat. 
How do plants accomplish such a wonderful task ? 

1. By keeping the original rocks moist, and by 
decay of leaves, mosses, etc., producing carbonic 
acid which dissolves the rocks, and thus gives more 
soil for a more luxurious growth of vegetation. 

2. By breaking rocks in pieces by the penetrat¬ 
ing power of roots. 

3. By holding moisture back along the sides of 
hills to prevent its running away in floods, until 
the plant life can have time to utilize the food dis¬ 
solved in it. 

As to manner of food storage, plant substance 
and seed factories, see topics already written 
in previous pages of this book. What have 
animals done to repay the plant kingdom for 
all this labor ? Take the fish-worm for example. 
The fish-worm, or earth-worm, has so burrowed or 
channelled the ground that it is difficult to find a 
place where they have not been. 


96 


MANUAL OF NATURK STUDY. 


1. Where ground is tilled, these earth-worms 
help to carry water from the surface to the tile ditch, 
and thus help in the drainage. 

2. In time of rain after a long dry spell, they 
help the water to soak into the ground rather than 
have it run off into ditches, and thereby become 
wasted so far as the plants are concerned. 

3. They reclaim waste land by bringing dirt to 
the surface and covering up stony places, etc. 
Henson estimated the amount of dirt brought to 
the surface to be about 36 tons to the acre per year. 
Darwin’s estimate was about half that amount. On 
an average, according to Henson, there are 53767 
worms to the acre, or 36.5 tons. 

The ants, also, do an immense amount of exca¬ 
vating and opening up the soil so as to make it 
more conducive to the health of the plant. Bees 
help in the fertilization of flowers and thus pay 
for all the honey obtained. The same may be said 
of the hornets, yellowjackets, bumble bees, etc. 
The butterfly and moth also aid in this, but their 
larvae are destructive to the life of the plant. But 
then, again, insect-eating birds destroy the larvae 
and thereby repay by way of defence to the plant. 
Birds help in the distribution of plant seed. Ani¬ 
mals of various kinds help in the dissemination of 
seed. How? The excrement of animals and birds 


MANUAL OP NATURE) STUDY. 


97 


make the soil rich and thus nourish the plant. 
Even their bodies when they die decompose and 
become food for plants. 

Summary. 

What plants do for the animals. 

1. Plants furnish ready-made oxygen for ani¬ 
mals to breathe. 

2. Plants gather the elements out of the ground 
and make them over into food for the animals’ sub¬ 
sistence. 

3. Plants hold back the moisture on sloping 
lands and thus prevent arid wastes. By this means 
gushing springs, to slake the thirst of animals, 
burst out at the foot of the hills and bluffs. 

4. Plants furnish protection from storm and 
scorching sun. 

How the animals repay the plants. 

1. Animals yield up carbon dioxide as food for 
the plant. 

2. Animals drain the ground and thus make 
the soil in proper condition for the plants. 

3. Animals (earth-worms) lead the water of 
heavy rain in dry time through the soil to an 
underground outlet, rather than permit it to rush 
away in one general flood and thus do the soil no 
good. 

4. Animals assist in fertilization. 


98 MANUAL OF NATURE STUDV. 

5. Animals assist in seed dissemination. 

6. Animals give their excrement and dead bodies 
to the nourishment of soil for the benefit of the 
plant. 

Domestic Animals. 

a . Productions of. b . Treatment, c. Uses, d. 
Products, e . Commercial value. 

Let the horse be the type for general discussion, 
as children are interested in this animal more than 
in any other. Under this head may come the differ¬ 
ent kinds of horses on basis of use, viz.: Draft 
horse, coach horse, race horse, driving horse, sad¬ 
dle horse; on basis of stock, Norman, Clydesdale, 
heavy draft, Indian pony, Canadian or Montana 
pony; Texas pony, etc., with the general charac¬ 
teristics of each. In connection with the study of 
the horse, read - portions of Black Beauty, by 
Sewell. 

This book gives an exhaustive treatise on treat¬ 
ment. Cows, dogs and other domestic animals 
may be introduced at many points in the discussion 
of the horse by way of comparison and contrast. 
Kind treatment should be the emphatic topic in 
every case. 

The comparative commercial value of cows, fat 
stock, horses, and so forth, may be discussed, to¬ 
gether with cost and care to be deducted in each 


case. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


99 


Physiology. 

1. Review foods. See work for third year. 

2. Digestion .— a . Organs of. b. Functions of 
each organ, c. Processes, d. Favorable and un¬ 
favorable conditions. 

After a discussion of the foods, as suggested in 
the Third Grade, put them through a process of 
cooking, and then introduce the children to the 
process of mastication , the first process in digestion. 

Teeth. —Number, kind, action. 

Saliva .—Show where it comes from, and what 
excites it to action. Prove that one of its uses is 
to enable the jaws, tongue and cheeks to work 
smoothly with each other. 

To do this, have each child bring a clean napkin, 
and, at the order of the teacher, mop out their own 
mouths perfectly dry and immediately thereafter 
try to chew or open the mouth, and work the 
tongue. What result ? 

Again mop the mouth dry and immediately 
thereafter put sugar on the tongue, and see if it 
can be tasted. Try sand, and see if the child, 
while the tongue and mouth are absolutely dry, 
can detect the difference in taste. It must be then 
that the saliva is used to dissolve solubles in the 
mouth so as to give the tongue a chance to select 
the good and reject the bad food. 


100 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


Again, let the pupil try to swallow when the 
mouth and throat are perfectly dry. What result? 
Saliva, then, is necessary to swallowing. 

Let the pupils chew grains of wheat for a few 
minutes. Note the appearance of a sweetish, sug¬ 
ary taste due to the action of the saliva on the 
starch of the wheat. Note further that starch is 
insoluble in saliva, and, therefore, has no taste, 
while sugar is both soluble and sweet. 

The saliva, then, is used to change starch into 
sugar, and hence in solution to make them more 
pleasant to the taste and to facilitate digestion. 

Let the pupils now enumerate the four uses of 
saliva, and state what effect the use of tobacco 
would have upon each use. 

The food has quite a series of processes to go 
through before it can be of any service to us. 
After leaving the mouth, it passes over a little 
draw-bridge that always falls across the opening to 
the wind-pipe whenever it sees any solid or liquid 
coming. You know the windpipe is so constructed 
that nothing but air, or other substance in the 
form of gas, can pass along its track without caus¬ 
ing violent strangling and coughing. Poisonous 
gases, at least some kinds, will also cause strang¬ 
ling, and even death, if introduced into the system 
in any way, but especially through the windpipe. 


MANUAI, OF NATURE) STUDY. 


101 


The windpipe is a tube that leads downward to our 
lungs, and it is through it that the lungs are filled 
with air, and through it the bad air escapes from 
the lungs. So, you see, it is very important that 
this tube be kept for the passage of air only. 

Put your hand on your throat and feel that 
gristly tube just in front of the gullet. That 
tube is the windpipe. Now, the gullet you 
cannot feel with your hand, for it is just be¬ 
hind the windpipe, and extends behind it all the 
way downward to the stomach. The gullet carries 
the food, receiving the same as it rolls off the other 
end of the bridge mentioned awhile ago. Then 
the bridge flies up again, so that our breathing 
can continue as before. 

The gullet is composed of thousauds of muscular 
rings around a lining member that is smoother and 
finer than the lining of your cheek. This inner 
lining is so smooth and moist that the food, pushed 
from behind by muscular rings, easily glides along 
down into the stomach, which is a large room con¬ 
taining capacity for three pints. 

How is the lining of the gullet kept moist ? 

But the greater part of our food is solid, such as 
potatoes, beans, meat, fruits, etc., and can no more 
enter into the blood, the general circulation, than 
sand can be taken into the sap of the plant by the 


102 


MANUAL OP NATURE STUDY. 


root hairs. So something must be doue. Nature 
here again provides a remedy. This solid matter 
must be dissolved before it can soak through the 
walls of the stomach or be taken up by the villi . 
See third grade work in regard to villi. So a set 
of organs are made to manufacture solvent juices, 
which are poured upon these solids in the stomach. 
These juices keep pouring into the stomach until 
the food is sufficiently softened and liquified to pas£ 
out at the back door (phyloric orifice) of the stom¬ 
ach into a long coiled tube called the small intes¬ 
tines. Here again other solvent juices are poured 
in until all the food that is fit for use in the body 
is dissolved just like sugar in milk; then the villi, 
like the root hairs in the ground, suck the j uice up 
and the lacteals (milk drinkers), a system of hair¬ 
like tubes, carry it onward to a larger tube called 
the thoracic duct, through which the food fluid is 
passed into the veins, and thence through the heart 
to general circulation throughout the body, visit¬ 
ing muscles, nerves and bones, repairing the waste 
places on the way. 

Experiment. 

1. Dissolve a small lump of limestone with 
hydrochloric acid. Note the rapid action as the 
limestone passes into solution. 

2. Pour a half glass full of water into the acid 
over the limestone. Note the decrease in action. 


MANUAL OP NATURE STUDY. 


103 


Question: When the solvent juices of the stom¬ 
ach are acting upon the solid food just swallowed, 
what would be the effect of a large drink of water, 
or any other drink ? These solvent juices act best 
when the temperature of the stomach is about as 
warm as blood. Then what effect would a glass of 
ice water or a dish of ice cream have upon digestion 
if taken just after or during a meal? 

Review the organs of digestion together with the 
function of each, and develop some hygienic laws 
relative to best digestion and consequent good 
health. A lesson or two on the effect of alcohol 
upon the stomach and its juices, would be alto¬ 
gether proper with this subject of digestion. 

A general discussion of “stomach troubles” such 
as dyspepsia, may be deferred to the eighth grade. 

3. Circulation . a . Organs of. b. Functions of 
each organ, c . Favorable and unfavorable condi¬ 
tions. 

We stated a while ago that the dissolved food 
passed through the thoracic duct to veins, thence 
to the heart, and from that organ to the general 
circulation. Just at this point a good beef heart 
from a slaughter house should be provided and 
the teacher should proceed to dissect the same in 
the presence of the pupils, showing the right and 
left auricles, right and left ventricles, valves, 


104 


MANUAL OT NATURE STUDY. 


entrance of veins and departure of arteries, dis¬ 
tinguishing between those of the pulmonary sys¬ 
tem and those of the systemic. The heart may 
be represented as a pump, forever receiving blood 
from the lungs and body, and continually pumping 
it again to various parts of the system. (See third 
year work.) 

Color of blood ? When a finger is cut, what is 
the great natural process that stops the flow of the 
blood ? (Clotting.) What is the use of blood to 
the system ? How does it create heat ? How does 
it promote growth and repair waste ? 

“Blood, then, is a very wonderful fluid.’ * * * 

But you will not wonder at it when you come 
to see that the blood is the great circulating market 
of the body, in which all the things that are wan¬ 
ted by all parts, by the muscles, by the brain, by 
the skin, by the lungs, liver and kidneys, are 
bought and sold. What the muscle wants it buys 
from the blood; and so with every other organ and 
part, as long as life lasts, this buying and selling 
is forever going on, and this is why the blood is 
forever on the move, sweeping restlessly from 
place to place, bringing to each part the things it 
wants, and carrying away those with which it has 
done. When the blood ceases to move, the market 
is blocked, the buying and selling cease, and all 


MANUAL OF NATURE) STUDY. 


105 


the organs die, starved for the lack of things which 
they want, choked by the abundance of things for 
which they no longer have any need.”— Foster . 
d . Weather Study —See outline. 


106 


MANUAL OF NATURE) STUDY. 


FIFTH YEAR WORK. 


A .— Plant Life. 

1. Study stems as to arrangement and growth .— 
Collect a number of stems from trees of different 
kinds, selecting the younger shoots as far as possi¬ 
ble. Each pupil should be provided with several 
specimens. Point out the bark, wood and pith. 
Where is the pith? The bark? The wood fiber? 
These parts will be better fixed in mind by drawing 
cross-sections of the stem. Require the pupils to 
draw cross-sections of walnut, hickory, oak, elder, 
heavenwood and some of the herbs for comparison. 
See if the children can separate the bark into three 
parts, viz., outer layer, middle, and inner or bast 
layer. Compare several sprouts, one of which 
shall be the linden or basswood. It will be inter¬ 
esting now to give a general classification of stems, 
so that the pupil may know them in all their forms, 
bearing in mind that the stem is the axis of a plant, 
which, when developed, always bears geometrically 
arranged leaves, and that a branch is a secondary 
stem. For the purpose of such classification, col¬ 
lect some plants, as sage, lilac, elder, hazelnut, 
haws, crabs, or thorns, raspberry, rose, pea vines, 
beans, grapes, pumpkin vine, strawberry, little 
dew-berry, passion flower, Virginia creeper, ivy 
(avoiding the poison ivy, which is known by its 



MANUAL OP NATURE) STUDY. 


107 


three leaflets), morning glory, hop, rushes and the 
tall grasses, tendrils, spines or thorns. 

Also underground stems, such as tuber, or potato, 
scaly roots of various kinds, and many others if the 
teacher can continue the interest along this sort of 
work. 

Another classification, perhaps more simple, may 
be mentioned, viz.: Hypocotyls,* scale leaf stems, 
foliage stems and floral stems. Hypocotyls include 
all stems whose bud of the main shoot is developed 
from the apex, for example, the maple, or almost 
any forest tree, bean, etc. Scale leaf stems are 
those which are beset with scale leaves and are 
almost always under ground with axis vertical, as 
lilies, tulips, hyacinths, onions, stars of Bethlehem. 
The tuber, a modified scale leaf stem, as also are 
rootstocks and creeping stems. The foliage stem 
is above ground and bears leaves with green blades. 
The peculiar style of the plant is dependent upon 
the foliage stem. Foliage stems are herbaceous, 
woody, nodose, scapers, or flower stalks. Erect 
foliage stems, as caudex, culm, stalk and trunk. 
The floral stem is that on which the flowers are 
borne, and may be the main or lateral axis. All 
stems have nodes, commonly called joints, and in- 


*Hypocotyl is the same as caulicle. Cau!ic!e is the first internode, or portion of 
the stem below the cotyledons and above the radicle or beginning of the true root. 
It is seldom applied to the part after the plant has developed. 


108 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


ternodes, tlie part between the nodes. In all kinds 
of stems presented, the nodes and internodes should 
be poidted out. 

Arrangement of leaves and branches .—The ar¬ 
rangement and mode of branching and form of the 
tree must depend, to a great extent, upon the ar¬ 
rangement of leaves upon the branch. As the leaves 
are arranged, so are the branches, because the branch 
always appears from the axil of the leaf. Opposite 
leaves produce opposite twigs and branches. The 
maple is an excellent example of such an arrange¬ 
ment. In alternate arrangement, the branch has 
but one leaf to each node. Not more than one 
branch or twig will appear as a rule in the alternate 
arrangement. Compare the linden with the maple, 
as to arrangement of leaves and branches. Com¬ 
pare with corn, wheat and other grasses. How 
many vertical ranks in each specimen compared? 
Try to find stem with three ranked arrangement. 
Try cherry, poplar, apple, peach, plum, and count 
the ranks (five ranks.) Try the yard plantain for 
eight ranks. How about the potato ? How do you 
know that it is a stem and not a root ? Have roots 
nodes and internodes ? Have they ranks in bud¬ 
ding lateral roots ? What is a stem ? What is a 
secondary stem ? Observe that it is the business 
of stems to produce roots, leaves and fruits. 

2. Study buds as to position , arrangement , 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


109 


growth and purpose . Collect, as in the other 
grades, a great variety of twigs, especially of hick¬ 
ory, lilac, Balm of Gilead, cottonwood and syca¬ 
more. To avoid an over abundance of brush and 
litter, request the pupils to cut the twigs only three 
or four inches long and bind them into bundles of 
a dozen twigs each before bringing them into the 
school room. As to position, buds are either ter¬ 
minal or lateral. The lateral buds are borne upon 
the sides of the branch and are usually found in the 
axil of the leaf. There are superposed buds and 
adventitious buds on some plants, but it will be as 
well to avoid the necessity of studying either in 
this grade. 

The arrangement of buds is dependent upon the 
arrangement of leaves. Compare terminal buds 
with axillary buds, and account for the greater 
growth from the terminal bud. 

Cut cross-sections of terminal buds and require 
the children to draw cross-sections greatly enlarged, 
so as to show the arrangement of the leaves and 
scales. 

Cut cross-sections of lateral buds and draw. 
Draw stems containing leaves with buds in axils, 
and also terminal buds showing relative sizes. 
Draw sycamore bud with the protecting leaf just 
pulled off at one side, with cup in base of petiole 
in full view. 


110 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


In the spring time notice that the lateral buds 
of the cherry contain the flowers, while the termi¬ 
nals do not, as a rule. 

Notice in the dissection of these several kinds of 
buds that some are sticky and gummy as in the 
Balm of Gilead or cottonwood, and that those of 
the hickory and horse-chesnut are woolly or vel¬ 
vety. 

Why should this be so ? Compare with other 
buds of out-door life. With buds of green-house 
life. 

In this way, the teacher can easily bring out dis¬ 
tinction between scaly buds and naked buds, and 
that the purpose of scaly buds must be for protec¬ 
tion against cold, wet and insects. 

Do all axils bear buds ? Why ? Examine sev¬ 
eral before deciding. 

Buds sometimes lie dormant for a year or more. 
What will bring them out? In case of accessory 
buds, which is developed ? (The central and larger 
one.) In the event that one dies, what will be 
done by the others ? What appearance will that 
give the tree ? Do the buds (eyes) of the potato 
come from the axils ? Examine the potato very 
closely for rudimentary leaf scars. 

What are the little black heads found in the 
axils of the tiger-lily? What are onion sets? 
When do buds prepare for winter ? What signs 


MANUAL OF NATURF STUDY. 


Ill 


do trees give us of approach of winter ? (Full de- 
velopment and coloration of buds, the coloration of 
leaves whether frost comes or not.) What have 
the leaves been doing all summer ? (Making food 
for the plant.) What color is maintained during 
the factory season ? Green from chlorophyll. 
This now becomes disorganized, and the food is 
carried away by the sap to be stored up in buds for 
next year’s growth. This disarrangement, or 
breaking up of the chlorophyll, is the cause of the 
variety of color in the leaves. 

When winter is drawing nigh, the buds hurry 
into winter quarters. To get ready for this change, 
the buds make demand upon the plant for all the 
supplies it can possibly furnish. It demands what 
is already in the leaf and all the young bark can 
spare. 

The sap begins immediately to make the trans¬ 
fer. In fact, it has been doing a little of that work 
all summer, for we know that the buds started to 
build as soon as growing weather set in. But 
now, along in September and October, the demand 
from the buds has increased to such an extent that 
the sap cannot furnish the leaf laboratory any 
more material, so that the factory must “shut 
down” and permit the food already made to be car¬ 
ried away to build up the bud. 

Coloration of leaves now begins, and as soon as 


112 


MANUAIy OP NATURE) STUDY. 


the sap is done visiting the leaf or when it brings 
away the last load, the gate to the foot-stalk is 
forever closed and the leaf is ready to fall. If frost 
should come and find the gate open a raw place 
would be left v/here the leaf joined the branch, out 
of which sap would flow, and thus lose part of the 
winter’s food; but the plant seems to understand 
the situation, hence the closing of the gate or seal¬ 
ing over the place for protection. Why do leaves 
fall after a heavy frost? Are leaves of any benefit 
after they have fallen? How? What is the form 
of the food as stored in the bud for the winter? 
Starch. What change is brought about in the 
starch when the bud begins to swell in spring 
time? Sugar. Why is it necessary to change 
form? So that the sap can dissolve and use it. 
See lesson on saliva in fourth grade. 

The purpose of the bud is to furnish winter 
quarters for plant or flowers or both. The buds on 
the tree are a community of stem germs (baby 
plants). 

Compare cocoons of caterpillars with the hiber¬ 
nation of Johnny Jump Up or Spring Beauty. 
Where is the store of food in each case? Where 
in the tuber? Compare with hibernation of ani¬ 
mals, such as frogs, snakes, earth worms, etc., 
with the migration of birds. 

All nature acts upon one common plan, varying 


MANUAI, OF NATURE STUDY. 


113 


only in accordance with the peculiarity of the life 
dealt with. 

3. Study in proper season , exogens , endogens , 
ovary , anthers , pollen , germination , use 

of the pod . Make collections of exogen cut¬ 
tings not more than three or four inches long, 
tied in bunches as suggested for the collec¬ 
tion of buds. In fact the same collection will 
answer. What is the arrangement of woody 
matter in each case? Exogens have a bark made 
of an outer protective layer, a middle layer, and a 
green bast, or inner layer. Let pupils find these 
layers from a cross section. In the spring of the 
year when the sap is beginning to work, the cells 
out of which bark and fibre are both made, are so 
tender and soft, being filled with sap, that a very 
little pressure on the bark will cause the same to 
slip from the woody fibre. Boys sometimes make 
willow-bark whistles in the spring time, because 
of that fact. The growth of the stems comes 
from that layer of cells, one side building new 
green bark, the inner side building a new woody 
fibre. Plants that increase in size in that way are 
called exogens. 

Still examining cross sections, let the pupils 
observe that within the bark just described is woody 
fibre composed of bundles arranged in rings around 
a central pith. See if ali this is true of the apple 


114 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


branch, of cherry, peach, sycamore, bean. Have 
pupils count the rings of growth in stumps of trees 
and cross sawed timber. Do these rings represent 
periods of growth ? Can we then form some notion 
of the age of the tree? By way of contrast, make 
a collection and study of endogens. As in exogens 
collect bundles of cuttings three or four inches long. 
Examine cross sections to see if the bark is the same 
as that which covered the exogens. Can you in 
any way pound or rub the bark of a cornstalk loose 
as you did the willow bark? Can you the grass 
bark? The wheat bark? Sugar cane? The 
palm? Pond weed? Cat tail? Indian turnip? 
Banana ? Lily ? Pineapple ? Any of the rushes ? 
Fish pole ? Do you find in any of these cuttings 
the fibre bundles arranged in rings around a cen¬ 
tral pith ? Compare with oak, box-elder or bean in 
this respect. Make drawings of cross sections of 
endogens, alternated with exogens so as to get the 
distinction fully fixed on the mind. Plant a few 
acorns, beans, peas, beech nuts in same dirt 
with corn, sugar cane, wheat, and notice difference 
in number of seed leaves as they begin to come 
through the dirt. Those having two seed leaves 
are called dicotyledonous plants, and those having 
but one seed leaf monocotyledonous. To which of 
these does corn belong? Apple? Is the walnut 
exogenous or endogenous? How can you tell? 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


115 


Oats ? Why ? Then are all exogens dicotyledon¬ 
ous and all endogens monocotyledonous plants ? 
Make a list of each kind. Which do you think is 
the more useful to man ? Why ? 

Ovary —See lessons on parts of the flower as 
given in third grade. Collect a supply of flowers 
for the pupils, being particular to select those con¬ 
taining large ovaries or seed pods, so that the child¬ 
ren may see with as little difficulty as possible. 
Flowers of indeterminate inflorescence will be best 
for the reason that some of the lower ovaries are 
ripening into quite large pods, while the upper por¬ 
tions are just bursting into flowers. This will show 
the progress made by the seed factories. Review 
the parts of the flower as in third grade. This may 
be done with any simple flower for two or three 
exercises before dealing minutely with the organs 
of reproduction. 

Now as to the ovary. What part of the flower 
does the pistil occupy when single? What is their 
position when there are two pistils ? When there 
are several ? What part of the pistil does the ovary 
occupy? What are the other parts of the pistil? 
Purpose of each ? Open the ovary of a fresh flower. 
What does it contain ? (Ovules.) Open the ovary 
of a well matured seed pod. What does it contain ? 
(Seeds.) How do seeds differ from ovules ? What 
caused the ovules to grow into seeds ? The life, or 


116 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


principle of the seed was introduced by the pollen, 
afterward the sap carried food from the roots and 
leaves and fed this new life. This new life is the 
superintendent of the seed factory. What part of 
the flower bears the pollen ? How does it get out 
of the anthers ? When must it get out in order to 
give this life to the ovules ? (When the stigma is 
moist and sticky, ready to receive the pollen.) 
Suppose the pollen waits until the stigma dries off, 
then what will happen to the ovules? (They will 
shrivel up and the flower will die.) Suppose the 
pollen to fall out before the stigma is ready to re¬ 
ceive it, what then will the ovules do ? The pollen 
then must neither be tardy nor too hasty if it 
expects to give the ovules life. 

Sometimes insects carry pollen from some other 
flowers to give life to ovules of a flower, whose pol¬ 
len has been too late or too soon. In that case 
ovules do not shrivel, but grow into mature seed. 
Teacher should here explain the process of fertiliz¬ 
ation by bees, butterflies, humming birds, etc., 
allowing the children to assist in the discussion as 
far as possible. Kindle the interest of pupils into 
daily observation of insect-life among the flowers. 

Collect pods from shepherd’s purse, mustard of 
any form, bean, Judas tree, locust, pea, monkshood, 
maple, Jamestown weed, or any others, and devel¬ 
op the use of the pod. Collect some real green 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


117 


ones, to show the condition of the seed when it be¬ 
gins to grow. What are the dangers to which the 
seed is subject? What is the use of the hull on 
the hickory nut? The pod on the chestnut? 
What is the condition of the seeds when they are 
f ready to burst from the pod? See hickory nut, 
chestnut, hazel nut, beech nut, pea, bean, locust 
seed, and the seeds from any other pods. What 
then can be the use of the pod ? 

4. Purpose of Plant . a. Reproductive, to pro¬ 
duce seed. b. Commercial; use to man. 

Let the pupils make a list of vegetables and 
plants that have commercial value.—The commer¬ 
cial value is always based upon use to man. The 
turnip, cabbage, potato, radish, and other fleshy 
vegetables and roots, will be mentioned. Why did 
these plants produce such fleshy vegetables ? The 
turnip next year will produce seed. In the pro¬ 
duction of seed, the great mass of starchy material 
is absorbed, thus leaving in place of the turnip, 
a tough leathery shell. How was the turnip 
produced this year ? What will the turnip produce 
next year? What then is the real fruit of the 
turnip plant ? What must be the purpose of the 
plant? To reproduce itself by means of its seed. 
What we know as turnip is a great store house 
from which to draw supplies for the seed factory 
next year. What we know as cabbage is simply a 


118 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


store house from which the plant next year may 
draw supplies for the devolopment of cabbage 
seeds, which when sown will produce new cabbage 
plants. The potato, in its native country, is used 
in the same way, but man and animals have taken 
advantage of these plants, broken open their 
store houses, robbed them of their supplies, and 
made merchandise of them. But man is not a rob¬ 
ber after all, for he repays the plant for all that he 
has taken. 

How does he do this? How do other animals 
repay the plant? In dissemination, etc. See inter¬ 
dependence of plants and animals, fourth grade 
work. Fine fruits, as apples, cherries, strawberries, 
peach, plum, are used by the plant for the same 
purpose of reproduction. Their flesh is edible and 
colorations attractive, both of which lead to dissem¬ 
ination of seed for the plant as well as commerce 
for man and food for animals. Draw the conclus¬ 
ion that self-preservation is the first great law of 
nature, and that in obedience to this law, the plant 
produces seed and fruit in order that it may live 
again; also, that when it yields up its fruit and 
store of nourishment to man for his food, the pur¬ 
pose of the plant is not defeated as it may at first 
appear, but strengthened, in that man now becomes 
the friend of the plant in its struggle for existence. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


119 


B. —Physiology. 

(For winter study, at least when not seasonable 
for plant study.) 

1. Bones .— a. Names and groups, b. Forms 
and economy of structure, c. Uses, d. Obser¬ 
vation of real bones. 

2. Joints .— a. Kinds and movements, b. Liga¬ 
ments and attachments, c . Uses. d. Observation 
of action of joints. 

3. Muscles. — a. Forms and structure, b. Ten¬ 
dons and attachments, c. Uses. d. Observation 
of action of muscles, e. Exercise and its relation 
to muscular development. 

4. Respiration. — a. Organs ; name, form, struc¬ 
ture and purpose of each. b. Processes; inhala¬ 
tion and exhalation, c. Purpose of respiration. 
d. Observation of action of respiratory organs, e. 
Ventilation and breathing. 

See any School Physiology on these subjects. 
The outline is deemed sufficiently elaborate for any 
teacher. 

C. —Weather Study. 

Weather, record of preceding grade continued, 
noting thermometer, barometer, winds, clouds, 
rainfall, snow, hail, dew, and frost. (See outline 
for fourth year.) 


120 


MANUAL OF NATURE) STUDY. 


SIXTH GRADE. 


A .— Plant Life. 

1. Provision of nature for matured seeds. 

(a.) Nature provides a store of nourishment for 
each seed so as to give the new plant a start in 
life. 

The seed-leaves, or cotyledons, as in bean, pear, 
pumpkin, etc., are packed with food, which occu¬ 
pies the entire space inside the coats of the seeds. 
Examine these seeds after they have been soaked 
in luke-warm water over night. 

The cotyledons will easily separate, revealing 
the plumule and radicle. The cotyledons, plumule 
and radicle are together called the embryo. All 
the food there is in such seeds as those just men¬ 
tioned is crowded into the embryo. Let the pupils 
mention as many seeds as they can think of that 
have the food stored in the embryo. Next, let the 
children observe other seeds—corn, for example, 
after they have been soaked sufficiently long to be¬ 
gin to germinate. The children will notice that 
the food is around the embryo, like the albumen 
of the egg around the yolk. Hence the name al¬ 
buminous* seeds, that is, seeds whose embryo is sur¬ 
rounded by food supply. The bean, pea, com, 

*The word endosperm would be a more scientific term. 



MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


121 


etc., are called e.xalbuminous , because they have no 
food supply outside of the embryo. 

To which class of seed does wheat belong? 
Why ? Maple ? Hazlenut ? Buckwheat ? Peach ? 
Apple ? Beechnut ? It will be a good exercise to 
let the children germinate a great many seeds and 
classify them. 

(■ b .) Nature provides protection for the matured 
seeds. As soaking over night in water will facili¬ 
tate the study of protective coverings,—prepare 
beans, corn, peas and other seeds in that way, and 
begin the observation. Pull off the coverings and 
try to find an outer, hard covering and an inner 
mucilaginous membrane. Compare the soaked 
coverings with those that have not been soaked. 
Is the covering a good protection against insects? 
Against changes of temperature ? Against moist¬ 
ure? Scrape off the covering of five dry beans. 
Place these five naked beans, with as many covered 
ones, in a pan of water. In a few hours examine 
them, and note difference in the result of the ex¬ 
periment. 

How do you account for the difference ? While 
the outer coat of the seed is almost impervious to 
water, still, if no water could enter the embryo, no 
growth could take place. So nature provides one 
very small entrance to the inner portion of the 
seed. See if the children can find it. 


122 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


It is through this orifice that the ovule was 
fertilized by the pollen, and through this ori¬ 
fice that moisture penetrates the seed to dissolve 
the sugar which the sun has made from the starch 
already in store. If it were not for this opening 
the bean, or grain of corn, would lie in water 
many days before showing signs of germination. 
The outer seed coat has a great variety of colors 
and forms, ranging from black down through the 
shades of gray, brown and sometimes yellow, white 
or red. 

The wing-like and hairy appendages, curved, 
pointed and barbed processes are but modifications 
of the outer seed coat. What is the purpose of the 
parachute of the dandelion? Of milk-weed? These 
are but modifications of the outer seed coat, or 
testa. 

Do these parachutes serve any purpose other than 
distribution by the wind? They serve the purpose of 
guiding the seed point end downward so that it can 
work itself into the soil. Let the children observe 
this fact. Also iron weed, goldenrod, etc., may be 
observed and discussed in the same way. Notice 
the long, delicate silky hairs on the seeds of wil¬ 
lows. How do they serve the seeds in dissemina¬ 
tion? Do they serve any other purpose? Notice 
the muddy places which are adapted for the growth 
of willows catch these seeds while the dry places, 


MANUAL, OF NATURE STUDY. 


123 


not adapted for willow growth, are swept bare of 
these seeds by the wind. The silky hairs are 
peculiarly adapted for clinging to the mud, spread¬ 
ing out and thus bringing the seeds into close con¬ 
tact with the mud for germination. Notice the 
maple seed with its butterfly wings, the linden with 
its skiff, the roundness of walnuts for rolling down 
hill, the roughness and wartiness of some seeds to 
hold the dirt well, the mucilaginous coating of the 
sun flower seeds and gourd seeds, when fresh, to 
enable them to adhere well to the soil. 

2. Show how seeds separate from plants. 

a. Fruits that do not open at maturity, fall by 
the force of gravitation, when the sap ceases to 
bring food from the leaves, but they fall mos 
rapidly during windy weather. Why is that true 
and of what advantage to the seed? Name as 
many fruits as are known to separate in this way. 
In this collection, apples, peaches, plums, pears, 
cherries, berries of every description, of course will 
be mentioned, together with some discussion as to 
the wisdom of nature in providing the juicy pulp 
and colored skin; but the fruits equipped with hairs, 
curved bristles or hooked spines, together with the 
winged fruits and plumes should have a prominent 
place in the discussion. 

b. Fruits that open and discharge their seeds 
when ripe. 


124 


MANUAL, OF NATURE STUDY. 


They do this in a variety of ways. The spring 
beauty bursts open at the top, splitting downward 
on three sides, so that the seeds can be blown out 
by the first gust of wind, leaving the dry capsule 
clinging to the stalk. The blood-root pod is also 
erect and splitting from the top in two places, ready 
to throw its seeds as the stem nods in the wind. 
The poppy, a twin brother to the blood-root, opens 
a dozen or more slits with a suddenness that causes 
its ten-thousand very fine seeds to jump out of the 
capsule into the wide, wide world, each seed to begin 
a new life. The shepherd’s purse also splits down¬ 
ward from the top. Why do so many fruit capsules 
open from the top ? 

What kind of weather is best suited for such 
openings ? Did you ever know capsules to burst 
open in wet weather ? Why do they not ? How 
do the seeds get out of the capsules ? Other fruits 
and seeds may be studied as far as time and interest 
will permit. 

3. Show how seeds are disseminated. 

Many suggestions have already been made under 
(1) and (2) but perhaps there are teachers who 
would like the work given in more careful detail. 
With this thought in view the task is attempted. 

Dissemination. 

Call attention to the great amount of wild lettuce 


MANUAL OF NATURE) STUDY. 


125 


found now-a-days along public highways and "waste 
places. How did it get there ? Collect some wild 
lettuce and examine the implements for travel 
through the air. After breaking prairie sod, espec¬ 
ially in the low ground, cottonwood shoots spring 
up quite plentifully, even when there are no trees 
of that kind within a radius of several miles. How 
do you account for it ? Examine the provision that 
nature has made for floating the seeds and find 
your answer in that. 

The first jimson weeds in America sprang up 
with the tobacco around Jamestown, early in the 
17th century. Where did they come from ? How ? 
To-day they are found in many rubbish piles and 
hog lots all over America. How do you account 
for such a widespread distribution ? Here, again, 
an examination of the burr should be given. What 
other seeds are distributed in like manner? The 
pupils will name cockle-burr, Spanish needle, beg¬ 
gar lice, many achenia such as buttercup, hepatica, 
anemone, etc. 

Prof. D. S. Kelly, of Jeffersonville, Indiana, fur¬ 
nishes the following interesting account of weed 
distribution in the west: 

“ Not until a few years ago was the Solatium ro- 
stratum found east of Colorado; but when travel 
began eastward along the old trails through Kansas, 


126 


manual, of nature study. 


this weed began to work its way along these trails 
toward the Mississippi. 

“ The fruit, a berry, is covered by a very prickly 
calyx, and easily adheres to the tails of horses and 
cattle very much like cockle-burrs. Now the weed 
is found abundantly along the main roads as far 
east as central Missouri. 

“ In general the migration of our weeds has been 
westward, but the Solarium rostratum is a notable 
exception to the rule. 

“D. L. K.” 

What seeds are distributed by the wind ? Pupils 
will name dandelion, iron-weed, goldenrod, milk¬ 
weed, thistle and others. What seeds are distribu¬ 
ted by water? Nuts of various kinds. Cocoanuts, 
for example, have been carried from island to island 
in that wa}^; also algae and off shoots from weeds of 
lake and ocean. Many seeds are carried down 
rivers and creeks at time of great freshets and dis¬ 
tributed along the low submerged lands. Another 
way of distribution consists in the manner of sep¬ 
aration from plants, as described in (2) of this year’s 
course. 

4. Show how seeds escape from the ovary. See 
(2) of this year’s work. 

5. Show how seeds are protected through the 
winter. 

Berries, nuts, grapes and all indehiscent fruits 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


127 


are usually left alone by nature, covered with 
leaves. Ask the children their experience in win¬ 
ter, if they have traveled through the woods. If 
they have no experience to relate, it will be well to 
send them through the woods in dead of winter, or 
better towards spring to find beech nuts, acorns, 
hickory nuts, walnuts, hazel nuts, crabapples, wild 
plums, wild grapes, etc. It is more than likely that 
fully half of the number gathered in this way will 
have already lost their vitality for germinating, but 
of those which are alive, nearly all have been nicely 
covered with leaves as a protection from frost and 
water. Then, again, the seeds are more or less 
oily and thus offer resistence to cold and wet. In 
the majority of cases the outside hull or shuck 
keeps off the water and sudden frost. 

But there is another kind of fruit that does not fall 
with the coming of frost. See (2) of this report. 

Many of this kind of fruit open by means of 
valves, teeth or pores, and frequently the seeds are 
persistent long after the splitting of the pods. And 
as these pods generally open at the apex, provision 
must be made to protect the seeds against rain or 
snow. 

This is done by a peculiar quality of the pod, 
which attracts the water in such a way as to form a 
film of oily moisture over the seeds, and this film, if 
left undisturbed, will prevent the water from 


128 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


flowing in and destroying them. It also serves as a 
protective covering against frost. When thorough¬ 
ly dried off again, the first gust of wind sends the 
seeds whirling into space, some falling into good 
ground, where they are covered by drift, leaves, 
etc., there to remain until the sun reaches high in 
the heavens in springtime. Then what happens ? ^ 
But most of the seeds are picked up by the birds, 
or otherwise destroyed. Observe an ear of corn 
with husks remaining. Corn has been known to 
stand out all winter and endure extremely cold 
weather, and yet at planting time in spring, be 
chosen for the farmer’s seed. How is the ear pro¬ 
tected? How does the ear usually hang ? Would 
a farmer choose an ear that stands erect upon the 
stalk? Why? Why is corn that has stood all 
winter in the shock not good seed ? 

Notice the covering of seeds. See (1) of this 
course. Notice the oily nature of most seeds; take 
flax for an example. Unless seeds become soaked 
with water, frost will have but little effect upon the 
germ. Notice that cockle-burrs, thornapple, rag¬ 
weed, and almost all other weeds keep a supply 
of seed upon the stalk all winter, dropping 
them in early spring when dry, windy weather 
sets in. 

Of what advantage is that to the plant? How 
many have noticed sycamore balls persistent 




MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


129 


through, the winter ? Can the seed of the syca¬ 
more be better protected on the tree ? How ? 

Protection against animals should here be dis¬ 
cussed. Illustrations of these may be found in all 
fruits covered with thorns, prickles, and spines. 

Examples:—Thornapple, or Jimpson burr, cockle 
burr, chestnut, sand burr, beggar lice. 

2. North American pine bears cones, the scales 
of which are pointed with sharp spines, which de¬ 
fend the seeds against the attacks of animals, until 
the seed ripens and falls. 

3. Wild roses retain their fruit upon the bushes 
long after maturity, when they are distributed by 
black birds and other birds that prey upon the 
pulp. Mice love the fruit very much and, if per¬ 
mitted to do so, would eat the heart out of every 
seed. But the rose bush has thorns or prickles all 
along the bark so as to prevent any of the rodents 
from climbing after the seed. If the rose bush 
should drop its seeds early, what dangers would be¬ 
fall them ? 

4. The sun-flower seeds are protected from in¬ 
truders by prickly bristles covering the stalk from 
bottom to top. How about black berries ? In all 
these cases which way do the prickles point? If 
upward they seem to protect against browsing 
animals; if downward, against climbing animals 
and caterpillars. How are pods, as bean or pea, 


130 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


protected from mice? (Long pendant stalks). 

After cherries have fallen upon the ground the 
earwigs and caterpillars devour them. How are 
they protected against the attacks of these animals 
when growing upon the tree ? (Suspended upon 
stalks.) Fruits without spines or protective bris¬ 
tles, as apples, cherries, peaches, etc., when unripe, 
are bitter and therefore not sought by animals. 
When ripe these fruits are much sought by 
birds and other animals which carry them away, 
thus helping in the dispersal of the seeds. 

6. Study how embryo gets out of coat. Plant 
seeds of different kinds such as corn, beans, peas, 
acorns, flax, etc., in moist sand or saw-dust, in flower 
pots, cigar-box or glass tumblers, being careful to 
cover each vessel with a glass slide or piece of oil paper 
to prevent evaporation . Thick blotting paper, moist¬ 
ened and placed on a pane of glass, furnishes an 
excellent ground work for the planting of seeds. 
Sheet cotton would also answer the purpose to a 
very great advantage. After the seeds have been 
planted the same should be covered with another 
sheet of moist blotting paper and then set away in 
a warm place of the temperature required for grow¬ 
ing seeds. The growth of these seeds may be 
observed at every stage. Let the children see where 
the coat in each case bursts. In the case of the corn, 
which end of the plantlet bursts out of the coat first ? 


MANUAL OP NATURE STUDY. 


131 


Why should that be true ? Which end bursts out 
first in the bean? In the pea? In the acorn? 
Beechnut ? 

7. What provisions the plant has for developing. 
Review the store of nourishment in each of the 
seeds planted, distinguishingbetween exalbuminous 
and albuminous seeds. See discussion of this in a 
previous chapter. What are the two halves of the 
bean used for? Of the pea? The acorn? Why 
do not the acorn and pea rise above the surface of 
the ground and form the seed leaves as the bean 
does? How about pumpkin seed, squash, water¬ 
melon and corn? Wheat? Where is the food 
supply in each case ? What does the young plant 
do for food after the store of nourishment is all 
used up ? 

Have pupils point out the parts of the young 
plantlet even in the dry seed before it is planted, 
and then notice day by day the development of seed 
leaves, plumule, caulicle and roots, and finally the 
wasting away of the store house of nourishment. 

8. Study roots, stems, in relation to flowers as 
organs for taking in, etc. See lessons already given 
in preceding grades. 

9. Study forms of roots, leaves and stems. See 
third and fourth grade work. 

10. Examine and compare leaves, seeds, 
prickles, etc. See work for preceding grades. 


132 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


11. Study measurements of leaves, tendrils, etc. 
Have a sensitive plant, Mimosa pudica , if possible, 
brought in the school-room, and let the children 
touch the leaflets and observe them to immediately 
close together, and after a time regain their original 
position. Why does the plant behave in that way? 
This explanation of leaf movement, either from 
touch or influence of light or darkness, rain or sun¬ 
shine, is too difficult for a work of this kind. For 
full explanation of plant movement, the teacher is 
referred to pages 532-539, vol. I, of Kerner and 
Oliver’s Natural History of Plants; also vol. II, 
Goodale’s Physiological Botany, pages 397-424. 
See another chapter of this book for sleep move¬ 
ment of plants. Darwin says that all growing parts 
of a plant are in constant movement around one 
common center from right to left, or the opposite 
direction, from left to right. The tendril and 
twiner are only exaggerations of this common 
movement. Encourage the children to observe 
direction of grape tendril, pea climber, bean, wista¬ 
ria, hop vine, morning glory or any other vine in 
the vicinity, and report. 

Can a plant bore its roots into the ground any 
easier by this worming process than by straight 
pushing? Try to push a tender sprout or tender 
twig straight into the ground. Now try to work it 
back and forth. Which is the most successful way? 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


133 


Then which would be best for the root? The move¬ 
ment of the root is so very slow that we cannot see 
it move. We cannot see a plant grow; but we know 
that it does grow, for we can measure it at different 
times and prove it to be true. So, too, we- may 
measure the movement of a plant around a common 
axis. Erect a stationary wire or wooden frame around 
a growing plant, say a corn-stalk, being careful not 
to let the frame touch the plant in any way. Let 
the frame rest upon the ground and support a ring 
two or three inches in diameter, encircling the apex 
of the plant. Measure from time to time the dis¬ 
tance of plant from the ring and it will be found to 
vary. At one time nearer the north, then east, 
south and west, until it comes around to the north 
again. These measurements and records, if correct, 
will prove the circumnutation of growth. Try 
other plants in same way. 

The Fern. 

Upon what sort of soil do ferns grow ? Do you 
always plant them in Irfie shade ? Why ? 

Examine the blades, or fronds, and learn to de¬ 
scribe them. Draw several fronds, being particular 
to represent all their parts. Where is the stem 
out of which these blades grow? The stem is an 
underground rootstock or rhizome, somewhat like 
iris, Solomon’s seal, calamous or rhubarb. Notice 


134 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


a young frond just coming out of the ground, watch 
it until it is fully matured and describe its peculiar 
action. 

These ferns do not produce flowers as all the 
other plants you have studied, consequently they 
have no seed factory; but they have another way 
of reproducing themselves, which is very interest¬ 
ing as well as mysterious. Look on the under side 
of your fern frond. All ferns are not alike in this 
respect, but in all probability if you look closely you 
will find generally along the mid-rib and larger side- 
veins what at first appears to be a kind of papillae. 
These papillae, or usually conspicuous bodies on 
the under side of the pinnae, are called the sort 
(singular, sorus) or fruit-dots. Observing their posi¬ 
tion, notice the thin scale-like covering, indusium . 
But if you remove the indusium you will find attached 
generally by very delicate stalks, an oval or spherical 
body. These free ends are spore cases which con¬ 
tain a powdery mass known as spores. This mass 
of spores is very similar in appearance to the 
powdery cloud that escapes from a ripened “puff 
ball.” To the naked eye, these spores have no 
form, but by the aid of the microscope, it is clear 
that they are just as definite in form as this round 
earth upon which we live. Strange to say, too, 
each little spore contains the possibilities of a new 
plant, just as seeds do in the flowering plant, but 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 1^5 

not exactly in the same way. There are many 
of these spores in one single spore-sac and the spore- 
sacs are so numerous and small that you ean scarce¬ 
ly count the number upon a single frond. When 
the sac bursts the air is always dry and considera¬ 
ble breeze stirring. Under such conditions, what is 
done with the spores? These spores, of course, 
take the direction of the wind and are sometimes 
carried great distances, falling upon the ground, 
here and there, all along the way. 

If all ground were good for the growth of ferns, 
the spores from a single plant would soon populate 
the entire globe with ferns; but all ground is not 
good for ferns. These plants are a little particular 
about the sort of ground they grow in. The soil 
must be damp and shady—not too wet, but damp 
or moist. Around old, rotten logs or stumps these 
plants will grow very luxuriantly, if the soil is 
damp and shady. These spores, then, when they 
find lodgment in these damp places, gradually de¬ 
velop into very small discs or flattened leaves which 
spread out upon the damp ground. Each little flat 
leaf, or prothallium , as the botanist calls it, sends into 
the ground many very fine and delicate root-hairs. 
As soon as the prothallium becomes thoroughly fixed 
by its root-hairs, so as to obtain nourishment for 
itself and the young plantlet which it is about to 
give rise to, it develops on the under-surface, 


136 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


i. e., in monoecious prothallia, two organs called 
the antheridium and archegonium; the former 
answering to the stamens or anthers in the flower¬ 
ing plant, and the latter to the pistil or ovary. 
In other words, the antheridium is the male re¬ 
productive organ of the plant, and the archego¬ 
nium the female reproductive organ. As the 
pollen-tube of the flowering plant must reach 
the ovule for fertilization before the latter is ca¬ 
pable of development, even so must the energiz¬ 
ing influence of the spermatozoid fertilize the egg 
cell of the archegonium. Soon after this union, if 
the weather is favorable, a young fern plant starts 
out from the archegonium, and as soon as the fern 
is firmly established the prothallium withers away. 

The bean plantlet, you remember, draws its first 
nourishment from the cotyledons or seed leaves, 
and does not depend upon the soil until the 
best part of the food in these leaves is used up. 
The same may be said of beechnut or any flower¬ 
ing plant. In the young corn plant the *albu- 
men gives it the first start. Now the prothallium 
of the fern answers that purpose precisely. Two 
growing points start out from the archegonium at 
the same time; one is the leaf point and the other 
the root point; but the leaf point grows the faster, 
obtaining its food from the prothallium. As soon as 

♦The word endosperm, is preferable. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


137 


the root point has developed roots and leaves suffi¬ 
cient for an independent existence of the fern 
plant, the prothallium withers away just as the 
seed leaves of a bean do under similar conditions. 

It will be seen, then, from the foregoing descrip¬ 
tion that the fern plant does not reproduce a fern 
plant immediately, as do beans, peas and other 
flowering plants; but that it first produces spores, 
the spores produce prothallia, and the prothallium 
in monoecious specimens gives rise to male and 
female organs, and finally these organs reproduce 
the fern plant, which again produces spores. Such 
a process is called alternation of generations. 

Mosses. 

Where do they grow ? On which side of tree do 
you find them most abundant ? On which side of 
rock? On which side of hill? If found on the 
south side of rock, tree or hill, what must necessar¬ 
ily be the other conditions? 

While examining the rocks and trees you will 
doubtless find a scaly-like plant that spreads out 
over the rock and sticks very closely to it. This 
plant is known as one species of lichen . Some 
people call it moss, but it is not true moss. You 
will find it quite plentifully distributed over the 
surface of old marble slabs in grave yards. After 
many, many years, perhaps centuries, the lichen 


138 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


causes the rock to decay and crumble into dust or soil, 
sufficient to give the moss-spores lodgment. So moss 
takes the place of lichens j ust as soon as the latter has 
prepared the soil for the support of the moss forest. 
But moss will grow upon damp soil, wherever shaded 
and supplied with proper amount of heat. In fact, 
it does not require a great deal of heat or moisture 
to support some kinds of moss, as it is well known 
that great quantities of moss grow in the cold re¬ 
gions of the north where few other plants can exist. 
It will also do well upon dry knolls. Let the child¬ 
ren state where they have seen moss, and name 
some things peculiar to its nature. The Pigeon- 
Wheat moss is perhaps the commonest kind and 
can be found in great abundance by the children 
upon almost any side hill and often between the 
bricks of walks where the place is damp and shaded. 
The Pigeon-Wheat moss is known by its long 
pedicel bearing on its apex a capsule containing 
spores which, when ripe, are thrown out to be 
scattered by the wind the same as fern spores. 

These spores are no more the nature of seeds 
than fern spores are seeds, or puff-ball dust is seed. 
All seeds contain an embryo and food supper, the 
latter being either within or without the embryo; 
but the spores contain no'embryo. They give 
rise to green web-like threads, called protonema, 
which have no roots, but cling very closely 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


139 


to tlie ground, or brick, or whatever their home 
may be, until finally, after branching profusely, 
they give rise to very tiny lateral buds, which, 
in time, grow into moss-plants that bear the re¬ 
productive organs called antheridia and archegonia. 
The fern plant is asexual, while the moss plant is 
sexual. 

Though the fern plant has neither male nor fe¬ 
male reproductive organs, it is at the same time able 
to produce spores which fall to the ground and devel¬ 
op sexual plants called prothalia , from which sexless 
or asexual fern plants once more arise. 

Now the history of the moss plant, though pro¬ 
duced by “alternation of generations,” is somewhat 
different from that of the fern. In the moss, the 
more conspicious moss plant is sexual. It bears 
male and female organs, and an egg-cell is fertilized 
by a male element. The fertilized egg-cell remains 
attached to the mother plant and develops into a 
tiny sexual stalk which bears on its apex the spec¬ 
ial reproductive cells or spores. These spores fall 
to the ground as did the fern spores, and there grow 
into a usually thread-like structure, the protenema , 
from which the sexual moss-plants arise from buds. 

In the fern asexual generation was the more 
conspicuous; in the mosses, the sexual genera¬ 
tions are more conspicuous. 


140 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


Let the pupils examine mosses and ferns so as to 
compare and contrast the parts of the one with the 
other, taking first, the stem; second, the root; 
third, the leaf and fruit. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


141 


SEVENTH YEAR. 

A .—Plant Life. 

1. Review and continue the study as outlined 
for the sixth year. 

2. Study dowers whose floral envelopes are 
more or less grown together, etc. (a.) Review 
parts of the flower as in third grade work, and call 
attention to the essential organs and their relation 
to the perianth. It must be borne in mind that the 
essential organs are stamens and pistils, the former 
bearing the male elements, the latter the female 
elements; that the business of the flowering plant 
is to produce seed, and that fertilization is necessary 
to the production of seed. 

What is Fertilization? 

Let the pupils be supplied with an ample supply 
of flowers containing conspicuous stamens and 
pistils. As far as practicable, the flowers should 
be of the same kind, so that, when you give direc¬ 
tions, there may be nothing to hinder any of the 
pupils from careful observation. Lead the pupils 
to see that the stamen is made up of a filament 
and anther, and that the anther is the pollen pod 
just as a pea pod is a seed pod. 

With needles open the pollen case and observe 
that it is filled with a powdery mass called pollen, 


142 


MANUAL OF NATURK STUDY. 


each grain of which is just as definite in form as a 
grain of corn is definite, or a mustard seed is defin¬ 
ite in form. As the form of seeds varies in differ¬ 
ent plants, just so does the form of pollen vary in 
different plants. So certainly is this true that 
the plants may sometimes be determined by the 
shape of the pollen alone. 

For examples of these different forms, see the 
lily with its smooth, oval pollen grains; the sun¬ 
flower with its spherical pollen grains, beset with 
prickly projections; the musk plant pollen with its 
spiral grooves, the evening primrose with its three 
lobes as large as the central body, and so on, the 
pollen grains of each kind of plant differing in 
form from those of all others. But these forms 
cannot be seen without the aid of a good micro¬ 
scope. The other parts of the flower can be seen 
very well with a good hand lens. Every pupil 
ought to have such a lens in order to get best re¬ 
sults from an examination of these delicate parts 
of the plant. 

Note the opening of the anther. Does it open on 
the inside next the pistil, or on the outside away 
from the pistil? 

Now examine the pistil. Review the parts of 
pistil as in third grade work and note the relation 
of stigma and pollen to each other and to the 
ovules within the ovary. <• 


MANUAL OF NATUKF STUDY. 


143 


Of what advantage is the sticky substance on the 
stigma ? When is such substance most conspicu¬ 
ous? 

It will be a good experiment, if you have a mi¬ 
croscope, to place some pollen grains in warm, 
sweetened water under a cover glass and watch the 
growth of the pollen tube. The pollen grain, when 
it lodges in the sticky substance upon the stigma, 
begins just such a growth, sending its tube down 
through the style of the pistil to an ovule in the 
ovary. Through an orifice in the ovule this growth 
continues until its energizing influence is felt in the 
embryo-sac , where seed growth begins by cell divi¬ 
sion. 

Bergen says, “The process of fertilization is the 
union of the essential contents of two cells to form 
a new one, from which the future plant is to 
spring.” The one cell is formed by the elongation 
of the pollen tube, the other is the oosphere in the 
embryo-sac of the ovule. No growth of seed can 
take place without fertilization. 

During the growth of the pollen tube, how did 
it obtain its food supply? From what source? 
Where did the food come from in the experiment 
under the cover glass ? Could growth of pollen 
cell have been produced down the tube of a dry 
style? Could growth have taken place under a 
dry cover glass ? Now explain fully, as far as 


144 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


studied, all the conditions favorable for the perfect 
union of male element with female element, or fer¬ 
tilization. 

In Indian corn what is the style called ? Where 
are the stamens and what are they called? Why 
do not full ears of corn grow upon isolated stalks ? 
Examine a few ears from solitary stalks and see if 
the required number of grains is developed. From 
your observation what conclusion can be formed as 
to the provision of the corn plant for self-fertiliza¬ 
tion ? How are the styles, “or silks,” of the corn 
protected from the reception of its own pollen? 
Examine a stalk of corn so as to be sure that one 
or more of the blades pass between the tassel and 
the silk, thus acting as a roof to ward off the pollen. 
These blades may also serve to keep off too much 
water from the stigma, or too much hot sunshine, 
either of which would destroy the function of the 
stigma, but it keeps off the pollen as well. How 
are the chances of fertilization improved by com¬ 
munity plant life? How is the ragweed benefited 
by community life ? Let the pupils examine the 
ragweed and locate the seed pod and also the pollen. 
Be sure to observe that the pollen is dry and light, 
and therefore easily carried by the winds. 

What other plants bear pollen that is light and 
dry and easily carried by the wind ? We may call 
such plants wind-fertilized plants . 


MANUAL, OF NATURE STUDY. 


145 


In the spring time collect spring beauty, mus¬ 
tard of any species, hepatica, buttercup, marsh 
marigold, wind flower and dandelion, or almost any 
spring flower, and examine the stamens as to 
whether the anthers are borne upon long, slender 
filaments, or are they without filaments, i. e., anth¬ 
ers sessile? Does the anther rest upon the tip of 
the filament, or does the filament adhere to the 
anther along its entire length ? Notice particu¬ 
larly the position of anther in relation to stigma. 
What sort of opening has the anther in each case ? 
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each 
opening and each position in relation to fertili¬ 
zation. 

Now notice the stickiness and heaviness of the 
pollen as compared with the light and dry pollen 
of corn and ragweed in autumn. What conclus¬ 
ions do you reach as to method of fertilization 
amongst these spring flowers ? It must be remem¬ 
bered that some flowers do not open until fertiliza¬ 
tion has taken place. For example, many species 
of violet bear closed inconspicuous flowers, and 
these produce the greater part of the seed. Self- 
fertilization in such cases is the only method. See 
Darwin’s Cross and Self-Fertilization in the Vege¬ 
table Kingdom; also Geddes & Thomson’s Evolu¬ 
tion of Sex. 

Besides the flowers just mentioned, most of 


146 


MANUAL, OF NATURE STUDY. 


which are polypetalous and regular in form, there 
are myriads of others that are gamopetalous and 
irregular; also many that are irregular and 
polypetalous. For instance the irregular conspic¬ 
uous blossoms of the violet may serve as an irreg¬ 
ular polypetalous flower. Have the pupils 
supplied with a sufficient quantity for class exami¬ 
nation. Notice first of all the arrangement of the 
reproductive organs. See that the five short 
stamens connive around the style. Is the position 
of the stigma one that would be conducive to self- 
fertilization ? Does the protruding stigma turn in 
the right direction to receive the pollen to best 
advantage ? Examine the pollen to see whether 
it is sufficiently light and dry to be blown from 
flower to adjacent flowers by the wind? Then 
is it liable to be fertilized by the wind ? Is it a 
flower that is often visited by bees, or other insects? 
What inducement does it offer for the visitation of 
bees? Look in the base of the petals for nectar 
cups. Look into the spur. Does the beard in the 
corolla assist the bee in any way while it is reach¬ 
ing after the nectar? Watch the bees at their 
work among the flowers and report what you ob¬ 
serve. As the bee passes from violet to violet 
could it carry the pollen from the one to the stig¬ 
ma of another? How? Here it will be well for 
the teacher to turn aside from the study of flowers 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


147 


and give a few lessons on the bee and its apparatus 
peculiarly adapted for carrying pollen. Have the 
children examine with a good hand lens the third 
leg of the bee. The first tarsal joint bears regular 
rows of stiff straight hairs, on which the pollen 
grains are collected. The stickier and heavier the 
pollen the better will it adhere to the bee. Com¬ 
stock says of the bee: “ The worker is our common 
acquaintance, the dull-black and gold-colored com¬ 
panion of our walks, that we watch with interest 
as she ransacks the flowers of a garden or a way- 
side for her booty of nectar or pollen, now bending 
low a violet or clover blossom, now plunging 
headforemost into a hollyhock or lily, from which 
she emerges dusty with the gold of pollen doors 
which barred her way to nectar chambers.”— 
Comstock's Manual for the Study of Insects, page 
674. 

Returning to the flowers, is there anything 
about the shape and arrangement of the violet 
flower that injures its chances for self-fertilization ? 
Is the pollen suitable for wind-fertilization ? 
Why? Do these hindrances to self-fertilization 
and wind-fertilization become helpful to insect-ferti¬ 
lization ? How ? Study bleeding heart, columbine, 
larkspur, lily of the valley, snap dragon, horse- 
chestnut, lilac, white clover, red clover, milk weed, 
pea, bean, locust and wistaria in same way. The 


148 


MANUAL OF NATURK STUDY. 


pupils will notice tliat all these flowers are more or 
less irregular both as to arrangement of stamens 
and pistils and as to floral envelopes. They can 
also be led to see that whenever an irregularity in- 
j ures the chances to self-fertilization it at the same 
time facilitates insect-fertilization. 

The author is not quite sure that the statement just 
mentioned is always true, but it surely is true in 
many cases. For instance, the showy strap-shaped 
corolla of the sunflower advertises the nectar in the 
slender tubes of the flowers within, and thus the in¬ 
sects are attracted in great numbers. The lower 
lip of a gamopetalans corolla serves as a resting place 
for the bee, while it gathers the nectar within. The 
stamens of the horse-chestnut protrude in such a 
way as to form a perch for the bumble-bee while 
he sinks his suction pump down into the nectar, 
and while doing so, does not pollen cling to his legs, 
to be deposited upon the. stigma of another flower 
which he is soon to visit ? It will be observed that 
in such flowers the stigma and anthers of the same 
flower are seldom ready for fertilization at the same 
time. The stigma of one flower visited by the bee 
is withered, and therefore in a non-receptive condi¬ 
tion, while the pollen, ready to perform its part in 
the process of fertilization, clings to the legs of the 
bee, and is thereby transferred to a receptive stigma 
in another flower, the stamens of which are not yet 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


149 


ready for action. The stigma and pollen must rip¬ 
en at the same time, else self-fertilization can not 
occur. See Gray’s Structural Botany, pages 216— 
242. 

In regard to the coalescence of the parts of the 
floral envelope, it will be well to require seventh 
grade pupils to learn the botanical names. When 
the whorl of petals is more or less united, the cor¬ 
olla is called gamopetalous, a name signifying grown 
together. When not united, or when the petals are 
separate to the very base, the corolla is called 
polypetalous , a name signifying many separate 
petals. 

When the outer whorl of the floral envelope is 
united throughout any part of the sepals, above the 
point of insertion, the flower is called gamosepalous. 
When the sepals are separate to the very point of 
insertion the flower is called polysepalous . 

The expanded portion of a petal, or that which 
answers to the blade of a leaf, is called lamina or 
blade; that which answers to the petiole of a leaf, 
or filament of a stamen, is called claw or unguis. 
When this claw is absent, we may say that the pet¬ 
al is sessile. 

The lower part of a gamopetalous corolla is called 
a tube , if the sides are nearly parallel or at least 
not too spreading. For example, the lower part of 
the morning glory blossom is a tube . 


150 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


The upper part of a gamopetalous corolla, wheth¬ 
er divided or united, is called the border , or limb ; 
for example, the flaring part of the morning glory 
corolla, or the divided upper part of phlox, is a bor¬ 
der or limb. 

A gamopetalous corolla is said to be salver-form , 
when the limb or border is abruptly spreading up¬ 
on a long, slender tube; as in phlox. It is said to 
be tubular , when the border does not spread, as in 
the corolla of the trumpet honey-suckle. 

The corolla is said to be wheel-shaped when the 
border upon a very short tube spreads out like a 
wheel, as in bitter sweet and potato. 

The funnel form corolla, as the name implies, is 
shaped like a funnel, as in morning glory or bind¬ 
weed, where the tube gradually enlarges upward 
from a narrow base and expands outward into a 
wide border. 

The teacher should collect a series of flowers, 
ranging all the way from a slight coalescence of 
parts to a full united corolla, and proceed to dis¬ 
tinguish the different botanical names by the study 
of the different forms under observation. Deal with 
each flower something after the following method: 

Description of calyx, whether polysepalous or 
gamosepalous. If gamosepalous, is it tubular, 
notched or cleft. How many cleft ? Color. 
Description of corolla. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


151 


Polypetalous or gamopetalous ? If gamopeta- 
lous, what is the form of the corollo ? Is its form 
favorable to self-fertilization ? Explain fully. 
Notice its color as to whether it would be attrac¬ 
tive to insects. Notice its odor and nectar, guides 
and cups, and state whether you think these would 
assist in insect fertilization? Does the corolla serve 
as a protection to the reproductive organs ? How ? 

Describe the stamens, especially in their relation 
to the stigma, which must also be described. No¬ 
tice whether the stamens and pistils are equally 
fresh and vigorous at same moment of time. If so, 
what conclusion as to their adaptability for self- 
fertilization ? Do the stamens look fresh and vital 
and the stigma limp and withered? If so, what 
inference as to the ability for self-fertilization? 
Are the stamens withered while the stigma yet re¬ 
mains fresh and erect ? Give inference. 

Is the pollen of a kind that will admit of wind- 
fertilization? Now review all the parts about the 
flower that offer any inducements to insects, and 
state all the points favorable to insect-fertilization. 

3. Study clustered flowers leading to the com¬ 
posite. This study includes the whole topic of 
Inflorescence , or mode of flower arrangement. 

Flowers are said to be indeterminate when they 
are situated in the axils of leaves, as in shepherd’s 
purse; and determinate when they are from termi- 


152 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


nal buds. Either of these forms may be single, or 
solitary, or grouped in clusters. When in clusters, 
the indeterminate take the form of raceme , as in 
the lily of the valley, where the flowers, each 
upon a separate foot-stalk, are loosely scattered 
along the floral axis; corymb, as in hawthorn or 
trumpet creeper, which is but a slight modification 
of the raceme, the separate flower stalks being 
lengthened in such a way as to allow the flowers 
to rest in the same horizontal plane. 

What change would have to be made in the lily 
of the valley in order to assume the form of a 
corymb? Imagine a currant flower-cluster to be 
changed into the form of a corymb. Explain the 
process. 

An Umbel is a flower cluster whose floral axis is 
wanting. The flower-stalks or pedicels of each of 
the several flowers arising from the same point on 
the recepticle carry the flowers to the same height 
as in the corymb. The parsnip and cherry are 
good examples of an umbel. Imagine a cherry 
flower-cluster in the form of a corymb; what change 
took place ? Imagine a raceme of shepherd’s purse 
in the form of an umbel; what change occurred ? 

The plantain flower cluster consists of a length¬ 
ened axis along which sessile flowers are closely 
set. Such a flower-cluster is called a Spike. How 
must the plantain be changed in order that it may 


MANUAL/ OF NATURE STUDY. 


153 


take the form of a raceme ? Of a corymb ? Of an 
umbel ? 

Shorten the axis of the plantain until the sessile 
flowers arise from about the same point and the 
flower cluster would be called a Head . The button- 
wood or sycamore ball is a head. How is a head 
different from an umbel? A spike different from 
a raceme ? The spadix , as in Indian turnip, the 
catkin , as in birch, willow or alder are simply dif¬ 
ferent modifications of the spike . 

Broaden the receptacle of the head and surround 
it with a set of bracts called involucre and you have 
a composite flower. Examine the dandelion, iron 
weed, ox-eyed daisy, dog fennel and sun flower. 
In what respect are these flowers different from a 
clover blossom, or button-wood ball? 

The teacher may be able to trace the determinate 
inflorescence to the compositae in the same way as 
with the indeterminate. 

The cyme of the determinate corresponds with 
the raceme of the indeterminate. In the determin¬ 
ate inflorescence the flowering is centrifugal, that 
is, the oldest flower is in the center and the order 
of flowering is outward. In the indeterminate 
iuflorescence the mode of flowering is centripetal, 
that is, beginning on the outside and flowering 
toward the center. 


154 


MANUAIy OF NATURE) STUDY. 


The Fascicle is a cyme with flowers much crowded, 
as sweet williams. 

A Glomerule corresponds to the head. The 
flowers in a glomerule expand from the center out¬ 
ward, i. e. centrifugal, while the flowers of a head ex¬ 
pand from the outside toward the center, or cen- 
tripetally. 

Does the sunflower expand centripetally or cent- 
rifugally? How about the clover? The iron 
weed ? The lily of the valley ? What steps would 
you imagine a sunflower to take in order to become 
a spike ? Which form of flower cluster is most 
conducive to self-fertilization? For wind-fertiliz¬ 
ation? For insect-fertilization ? Why ? 

Give an opportunity for extended discussion 
upon the values of each form relative to fertiliz¬ 
ation. Let the discussion be based upon field 
observation of insects at work as well as upon 
adaptation of form. 

4. Become familiar with several of our common 
families of flowering plants. All plants that bear 
flowers are called flowering plants. We have 
families of people, families of animals, and strange 
to say, families of plants. We group together all 
plants that resemble one another in flower, seed 
and fruit, and say that they belong to a certain 
family. For instance, we say that the bean, the 
red bud or judas tree, the honey locust and the 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


155 


wild indigo all belong to tlie same family, the 
Pulse Family . Can yon tell wby ? Collect these 
flowers and see if they are alike. See if yon can 
find any other flowers that belong to this family. 
What are the points of likeness ? When these 
frnits ripen collect the pods and notice the similar¬ 
ity in pods and seeds. Of conrse these pods can 
not be collected until later in the year. Would 
yon place the clover in the same family as the 
bean? Try the pea, wistaria, sweet pea. 

Study the common mustard and note that it has 
four petals, four sepals and six stamens—four long 
and two short. Taste its stem and leaves. Get a 
collection of radish flowers, and notice points of 
likeness between them and the mustard. If possi¬ 
ble get turnip and cabbage flowers. Let pupils 
bring in any other flowers having the same points. 

These flowers all belong to the Mustard family , 
sometimes called the Cress family . There are over 
six thousand species or members of this family 
known to botanists. We cannot expect to make 
the acquaintance of the entire family, yet it is pos¬ 
sible to learn a few characteristics or marks that 
will enable us to know one of them when we have 
the opportunity. If the children will go out on the 
hillside they may be able to find the toothwort, 
which may be known as mustard by the common 
marks, and as toothwort by its root and leaves. 


156 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


Examine kale and report on the marks and taste. 

Send two or three pupils down into the bottoms 
and swampy places after varieties of cress. 

Make drawings of each variety found. 

Review points common to all members of the 
Cress family; to all the members of the Pulse 
family. 

Name the points in each species that distinguish 
the plant under examination from all others of the 
same family. 

If you have the time study the Rose family . 
This is a large family and is divided into several 
tribes or divisions. The child will be astonished 
to learn that the apple and strawberry are members 
of the same family, but they are. 

The plum belongs to the same family with the 
hot-house rose. Can the children tell why? So 
do the cherry and blackberry. Help the children 
to find the points in common. Let them search for 
other members of this family. 

Let a pupil describe a plant that has been stud¬ 
ied. From the description let the other children 
identify the plant and name the family to which it 
belongs. 

Again, name a flower and let the pupils describe 
and name the family to which it belongs. Vary 
the exercises as the interest and attention seem to 
require. 


MANUAL OF NATURE) STUDY. 


157 


\ 

Learn the points or marks by which any mem¬ 
ber of the Lily family is known. Examine the 
tulip, the trillium and dog-toothed violet. What 
are the points in common? Let pupils collect 
others of the same family. Is the calla a lily? 
The Indian turnip ? Examine them in comparison 
with each other and in contrast with the lily. 

If these families are well worked out the pupils 
will be fairly well equipped for the future study 
of flowers. 

B .— Physiology. 

1. Study somewhat in detail, foods, hunger, 
thirst, cooking, fatigue, etc. 

2. Study the special senses, seeing, hearing, 
etc. See third grade work for discussion of these 
two topics. 

Note. —Use charts to give correct ideas of the 
organs of the special senses. Make strong the 
hygienic teaching * in connection with the vari¬ 
ous senses and topics considered. 


158 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


EIGHTH GRADE. 


Physiology. 

If the work outlined in Physiology in the lower 
grades has been properly done the pupil will have, 
when he enters the eighth grade, a fairly good 
knowledge of the structure of the body, of the 
various processes of digestion, circulation, etc., 
and will understand the more common demands 
and laws of health. In the eighth grade the 
authorized text is to be in the hands of the pupils, 
and the work is to receive attention and energy 
equal with that given to other substantial branches 
of the course. 

The work will, of course, treat in the main of 
subject matter gone over in the earlier grades, but 
the treatment will be more comprehensive and 
technical than has been possible up to this point. 
The consideration of individual structure and 
function will now give way to the consideration of 
relation and interdependence. At every place pos¬ 
sible the pupil will be led to see the adaptation of 
structure to function and of both to hygienic de¬ 
mands and laws. As far as possible the laboratory 
method should be used. Actual material should 
be brought before the class whenever it can be 
used to advantage in explaining the structure or 



MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


159 


function of different organs or tissues. Micro¬ 
scopic study should be pursued whenever it can be 
done to advantage and will aid to clearer compre¬ 
hension of physiological facts. Physics and 
chemistry, in so far as a knowledge of them is 
necessary to make clear the processes of Physi¬ 
ology, should be studied in connection with this 
subj ect. 

The following outline is suggestive for the work: 

I. Study the Framework of the Body — The Skeleton . 

( a ) Composed of bones and ligaments. Ar¬ 

ticulation of bones, the synovial fluid 
and its use. 

( b ) Structure, chemical composition and use 

of bones as levers. 

(^) Relation of their structure and proper¬ 
ties to their uses. Growth and repair 
of bones, effects of food, exercises, 
habits, etc. Care of the bones. 

II. The Muscles . 

(a) Structure and properties of muscular 

tissue, the voluntary and involuntary 
muscles and their arrangement. Ner¬ 
vous control of muscular action. 

(b) Changes that the muscle cells undergo 

during contraction, carbon dioxide, 
uric acid and other waste material, the 
oxidation of food substances, heat. 


160 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


(c) Special adaptation of structure and pro¬ 

perties of muscles to the ends the}’ 
serve; use many illustrations. 

(d) The care of the muscles. Exercise and 

health. Effects of alcohol and nar¬ 
cotics. 

III. The Digestive System . 

(a) Foods, kinds of, and the composition 
and value of each. Necessity for food. 
Alochol and narcotics not foods. The 
value of water in digestion. 

(d) Structure and function of the teeth, stom¬ 
ach, intestines and other organs of di¬ 
gestion. 

(c) Chemical changes in insalivation, chym- 

ification and chylification. 

( d ) The lacteals, structure and function. 

The portal circulation, special features 
and importance; assimilation of food. 
Adaptation of structure and function. 

( e ) Hygiene of the digestive organs. Se¬ 

lection of food, etc. Effects of alcohol 
and narcotics. 

IV. The Circulatory System . 

(a) The blood, its composition and use, prop¬ 
erties of, structure and use of corpus¬ 
cles. Coagulation and its use. 


Manual of nature study. i61 

(< b ) The lymph, its composition and use, 
circulation of lymph. Arrangement 
and structure of lymphatic vessels. 

(c) The circulation of the blood, how carried 

on, the heart as a force pump. Action 
of the valves of the heart. 

(d) Structure and function of the heart 

arteries, veins and capillaries. Rela¬ 
tion to each other, capillary attraction, 
etc. Changes the blood undergoes 
during circulation. 

(e) Hygiene of the circulatory system. 

Effects of alcohol and narcotics. 
Respiratory System. 

(a) Composition of air, diffusion of gases, 
evaporation, heat, animal heat, radia¬ 
tion, etc. 

(i b ) The skin as a respiratory organ. Struc¬ 
ture and function. 

(c) Inhalation and exhalation, how carried 

on. Organs of. Structure and func¬ 
tion of respiratory organs. Adapta¬ 
tion of structure to function. 

(d) Relation of respiration to circulation 

and digestion. 

(e) Hygiene of the circulatory organs. Ven¬ 

tilation and heating, exposure, dress, 
etc. 


162 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


VI. The Skin and Kidneys . 

(a) Structure and use of each. The skin as 
an excretory organ. Modifications of 
the skin. The kidney as an organ of 
excretion. General view and neces¬ 
sity of the kidney. 

VII. The Nervous System . 

(a) General character of nervous stimuli, 
need of a coordinating process in the 
body. 

(( b ) Structure and function of brain, spinal 
cord, nerves, ganglia, etc. Action of 
each part. Divisions of the brain with 
special reference to structure and func¬ 
tion. 

(c) Reflex action, its general character. Re¬ 
lation of nervous system to other pro¬ 
cess of the body. 

(i d ) Hygiene of the nervous system, with 
special reference to sleep, exercise, 
morality, alcohol and narcotics. 

( e ) Relation of nervous system to the mind. 

VIII. The Voice . How Produced. 

(a) Structure and function of the larynx; 
its parts, nervous control of the voice, 
cultivation and care. 


MANUAL OF NATURE STUDY. 


163 


IX. The Special Senses. 

(a) The Sense of Sight. Light, refraction, 
the microscope. The eye as a special 
organ for receiving impression of light. 
Structure and function of the eye as 
to its parts. Defective sight and its 
remedy. Care of the eyes. 

(d) Sense of Hearing. Sound, properties of. 
The ear as a special organ for receiving 
impressions of sound. Structure and 
function of the ear as to its parts. De¬ 
fects of hearing. Care of the ear. 

(c) The Sense of Touch. Ideas received by 

touch. The skin papillae organs of 
touch, where most numerous. Struct¬ 
ure and function of papillae. Cultiva¬ 
tion of touch. 

(d) The Sense of Taste. Its nature, value 

and abuse. Organs of taste. Struct¬ 
ure of. Cultivation of taste. 

(e) The Sense of Smell. Nature of process, 

value of. Organs of, structure of. 

X. Health and Disease; Poisons and Their Anti¬ 
dotes. Emergencies. 









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